Why Are iPhone Users Willing to Pay for Content? - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/why-are-iphone-users-willing-to-pay-for-content/?ref=technology <comment><USER2> Because everyone is actually willing to pay for content, if the price is right, and it is sufficiently easier than the free alternative.

Case in point: TV shows. You can either click _a single button_ and download the TV show from _really fast servers_ , be notified of new episodes (and even auto-download) automatically...

or you can go to a shady torrent site with porn popups all over the place, install a torrent client (and set it up, which behind a NAT is non-trivial for most laymen), find a good torrent search engine, download your torrent, and curse your machine because public trackers are full of leechers who don't upload.

Yeah, I'd pay for the former too.

<comment><USER3> Exactly. Where are my $2 episodes that I can download legally?

A decently popular cable show probably has around 2 million weekly viewers. Make it super easy to get the episodes in 720p for $2, and that is $4 million a week in revenue, or $80 million for a 20 episode season (plus merch and dvd collections afterwards). I'm not sure what a season of a given cable show costs to make, but I'd be surprised if it was $80 million.

From the consumer's perspective, we are used to paying $60-100/mo for cable. If episodes cost $2 and we watched four a month, that is $8 per show per month. Our normal $60-100 would buy us 7-12 shows, which I imagine is more than most people follow anyway.

Same could be true for sporting events. I'd gladly pay $4-5 to watch streaming high def games. The company would make a killing off me in March, but I'd still pay it because it's worth it to me to not have to buy a whole cable package just to watch one month of basketball.

<comment><USER4> _Where are my $2 episodes that I can download legally?_

I can't tell if this is a rhetorical question. Most shows I want to watch cost $1.99 at the iTunes store...

<comment><USER3> They are $2.99 for HD, and they are DRM'd.

> _Purchases you make from the iTunes Store can be played on up to five > computers that you authorize using your iTunes Store account name and > password._

Although, yeah, they are close!

<comment><USER5> But does the DRM really get in the way of how most people watch shows (ie: once)?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Easy access. Reasonably priced. Instant gratification.

<comment><USER7> Well said. This is why I'm OK buying DRM-encumbered ebooks from Amazon. It Just Works, and I get a lot out of the experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Simplicity: Each purchase represents a discrete function users require in a package that doesn't have a steep learning curve.

Value: Customers are leveraging the wisdom of crowds (aka popularity) to help them choose an application (aka functionality) via Apple's App Store.

Barrier to Entry: The implementation promotion game includes the developer application process and cost, and the price point of the application.

Not-Quite-Open Platform: at&t and international cellular providers' customers aren't limited by enterprise inefficiencies or by the device manufacturers; customers can upgrade their iPhone with ease.

Leveraging Free Software: Apple is leveraging a customized version of BSD with a GUI brand/standard optimized for a single device (assuming cellular data technology is just a feature) instead of a product line.

Operational Excellence: Apple is easing into the mobile market instead of throwing a bunch of devices at customers and seeing what sticks; that's expensive.

Good Luck and The Global Economy: The iPhone was an investment during good times; customers are saving money and not looking to upgrade right now.

Ecosystem: Customers are building systems that compete with the established software companies and service providers in each vertical by blending mobility with simplicity. Oh, and the Apple iPhone experience is good with the PC... it is better with a Mac.

</comment><comment><USER9> They're willing to pay more for a better experience; that's why they bought the iPhone.

Apple made their side of the buying process really wonderful, and the content providers did the same, and the buyers have had generally positive reactions so far.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'd pay for convenience, but most pay sites ask for my money PLUS they reduce convenience.

For more free content, I can just click and get it. But when I want paid content, I have to fill out a form + get out my credit card + create a password.

The iPhone cuts out most of that work.

</comment><comment><USER11> Tangible virtual goods.

It's something I can hold in my hand. It instantly crosses the barrier from "that's something I've seen on the internet" to "that's something I can show you in my hand right now" without having any duplication cost. All kinds of win.

</comment><comment><USER12> iPhone owners tend to be better off, at least in my experience, than the average web surfer. Not a big surprise here that they would spend more money. Still, Apple had to create this success, it wasn't thrown at them.

</comment><comment><USER13> People who bought the iPhone have already bought into the notion that paying a premium you into a tier of exclusively higher quality experience. Paying for content once you have the iPhone is just an extension of, and in fact, a way of reconfirming and validating the decision to pay all that money for the iPhone to begin with.

It will be interesting to see if as time goes by the quality of iPhone apps decreases and tarnishes the expectations of quality or not. For now i think the gloss of quality from the iPhone carries over into an expectation about the apps themselves, so people are not nearly as wary of iPhone apps as say, I am about all the random shareware floating around in the PC market in the same price range.

</comment><comment><USER14> For me, it's that I forget how many I've already bought and the developers and apple have done a sufficiently good job at making the "lite" versions seem uncool. Kind of like being the kid in school that always has the second hand stuff. People want to pay for the real thing.

</comment><comment><USER15> One way of getting stuff that I've wanted for a while is to be able to pay for a series up front + maybe a bit extra, download it as they come out, then at the end of the series get the dvd/blueray box set.</comment>


How to find a salesman for your startup (or product, whatever) - <AUTHOR>

I've just gotten two developers (Java, C#, PHP) and a website designer for consulting and custom application development (as well as website design etc.)
Being that we're all in China how can I get a hold of a salesman (is that even the right person I should be looking for?) in the US(or Canada/Australia/UK) to sell our service?
Any idea's are appreciated. <comment><USER2> One piece of advice I've had with Synctus is that the best person to sell a product initially is the expert (in my case: me).

The advantages are: \- I can understand the situation my customers are in because of years of previous experience with them \- I know the product inside out (as I made it!) \- I know about all the alternative solutions and all the pros and cons of them \- From a customer's point of view, I am the one they are best off speaking to

Salespeople will of course learn some of this this, but ultimately they cannot match me. So I am learning sales (and there is a lot to learn!), rather than trying to get a salesperson to learn my product (I've tried this and haven't been convinced - technical products are hard to understand).

I would say that this applies for an early stage startup like me. Obviously this cannot scale, so at some point having salespeople would become necessary.

I'm not sure how this applies to you because of the territorial aspect - but I do believe that you'll be at a disadvantage if you are unable to sell your product yourself.

</comment><comment><USER3> Selling a service in a different country/culture than your own is a lot harder than you think. I would strongly recommend that you exhaust your local market (the one that you know and understand infinitely better), before you think about expanding abroad.

I'm speaking from my own experience. My first start-up was a tutoring / language instruction tool. The biggest market in the world for this is in South Korea, so we tried to launch there first. Big mistake. A few specific problems:

1) It's really hard to evaluate a) how good a foreign salesperson is, and b) how well they know the local market. Think about it. Most of sales relies on subtle, cultural cues (body language, slight intonations, really specific language), and it's difficult to gauge this. Much more importantly, though, anyone can tell you "oh yeah, I understand my local market in X space," and this is really hard to evaluate if you're not from/in that place.

2) Localizing is hard. Even if you hire coders and designers from the place you're trying to get into, again, evaluating their work is hard. Their work might look awesome to you (if you get lucky), but the viewing public of your launch market might think it looks terrible.

3) Your service probably has great applications around you that you haven't even thought of. For us, our workforce of smart, college-age language teachers, were equally suited for tutoring and and college counseling in the US as they were for teaching English to students in Korea. And the big difference was, we knew the US market infinitely better.

These are just things I found to be true in my own experience, but if you want to launch in foreign markets, then good luck and all the power to you.

If you do, the one piece of advice I would definitely give you is to find a local partner (someone who has YOUR interests in mind, whether through equity, etc.) and use that person to fill out your team/vet your talent there. This can mitigate a lot of the aforementioned problems.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually I'm British/Irish so the only issue is country (culturewise I'm very Americanised).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you are offshore, have not network and cannot relocate your best bet is to hire a local recruiter.

Personally though I'd just be staying up late and calling people direct.</comment>


Refactoring UI - <AUTHOR> https://refactoringui.com/ <comment><USER2> With sites like this, it's usually better to pick one of the more interesting specific articles and post that, so there's more detail to discuss. If you just post the home page, the quality is a bit like when people posts lists [1]: the only thing to discuss is the lowest common denominator of the things in the list, which is usually pretty generic, and when a topic is generic there are fewer interesting things to say about it [2].

[1] [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=denominator%20list%20by:dang)

[2] [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20discussion%20by:dang)</comment>


CRAPCHA: Completely Ridiculous And Phony Captcha that Hassles for Amusement - <AUTHOR> http://crapcha.com/

<comment><USER2> this is somehow easier than some CAPCHAs I've seen...</comment>


Ask HN: Does HN respect the GDPR? - <AUTHOR> Specifically, does HN/Y Combinator plan to allow contributors from the EU to request their contributed content to be deleted after May 25?
Note that they currently do not allow bulk deletes of one contributor's messages, "as that would wreck havoc in the discussion threads".
Basically you can ask nicely to delete some few posts, but if you want to delete all of your contributions you will get a no. This is at odds with the GDPR. <comment><USER2> I'm not a lawyer, but HN is not established (AFAIK) in the EU, and while it has EU users, it likely does not meet the threshold of actively offering goods or services to EU residents. Being accessible from the EU in itself isn't sufficient to trigger the GDPR.

<comment><USER3> my understanding is that these conditions apply to people in the EU, i.e. that EU residents must be able to delete their content from HN (but HN has no obligation to non-EU residents)

<comment><USER4> How would EU law compel a non-EU entity to delete content based on the residency of the user?

As an example of the opposite state, where this does definitely apply: Tarsnap complies with Canadian law around collecting names/addresses for users who are located in Canada, because Tarsnap is operated as a Canadian business. But if Tarsnap were located in the US, it would not be responsible for collecting that information from Canadian users.

<comment><USER5> > How would EU law compel a non-EU entity

Because US and EU have singed agreements to that effect. It's the price US must pay for EU to allow American internet companies to serve EU customers.

It obviously applies to any company with direct business operations in any one of the 28 member states of the EU. But financial transaction is not nessesary for the extended scope of the law to kick in. Collecting personal data from EU citizen is enough.

<comment><USER4> Which agreement between the US and EU mandates this?

<comment><USER5> EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework.

It came to effect 2016 and replaced the Safe Harbor agreement.

<comment><USER4> "While joining the Privacy Shield is voluntary, once an eligible organization makes the public commitment to comply with the Framework's requirements, the commitment will become enforceable under U.S. law."

From [https://www.privacyshield.gov/Program- Overview](https://www.privacyshield.gov/Program-Overview)

<comment><USER5> U.S companies have option to either do legally binding self-certifications or outside compliance reviews.

If they don't do that, they have no authority to collect data from EU Citizens (no user accounts or customers from EU).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What happens when I ask Google to go through everyone's gmail inbox and remove my information and all emails I've sent?

<comment><USER2> Interesting question. Google might argue you should direct your request to those individuals you emailed to. Google storing the emails doesn't necessarily mean that they're responsible for processing your deletion request under the GDPR (or maybe it does, I'm just speculating).

<comment><USER6> Google still makes available to its Gmail users the previous emails I've sent to them.

<comment><USER2> Yes, but the GDPR makes a distinction between data controllers and data processors. The data controller is obligated to process your request, but Google could argue they're just the data processor, and redirect you to the users (again still speculating... not a lawyer)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For me the question that a lot of people will be asking after 25th May, is what happens if they don't?

I would bet on nothing. The GDPR is there to catch the worst offenders, the other 99% of offenders will feel nothing.

<comment><USER8> > I would bet on nothing. The GDPR is there to catch the worst offenders, the > other 99% of offenders will feel nothing.

No. The danger is that Internet goliaths will use the GDPR to intimidate or even shut down smaller competitors. Think of patent trolls, just worse - because the GDPR has really huge fines attached and is damn easy to get wrong in implementations.

While the GDPR was intended to be beneficial to EU consumers, I fear it will end up being most beneficial to lawyers.

<comment><USER9> I'm interested in how you think this would work. As far as I can tell, the enforcing authority for the country where the individual affected resides would need to investigate. And frankly, where a smaller entity was playing fast and loose with data, I would want the authorities to investigate.

For instance, in the UK the plan appears to be for the ICO to work with companies and fine where there's a major breach and appropriate security wasn't implemented.

Now, perhaps some individuals will band together and complain, but they do not stand to gain from the enforcement in the same way that patent trolls do.

We're going from an era where companies can claim AES encrypted at rest and AES encrypted over the wire whilst running an ancient stack full of vulnerabilities and, above a certain scale, not even worry about it. I personally have high hopes that the GDPR will at least make people running companies like that worry a bit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Or decouple the content from the username/email, GDPR approved, content is still alive

<comment><AUTHOR> They "do not support that". Agree that it would be a nice workaround. Should also be technically trivial.

<comment><USER11> We're working on it.

<comment><AUTHOR> For months now. That is not credible. Seems like you actually need legislation as a deadline.

<comment><USER12> This is the case with most organisations. You have a finite amount of resources and attention, therefore you need to prioritise.

Most GDPR chatter started picking up only in the last few months (of course big orgs have been preparing for the May deadline for a while already).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I agree it would cause problems with the discussion threads, but a solution to this would be for HN to substitute the username & message with "Removed due to GDPR request" or similar.

</comment><comment><USER14> Maybe the easiest thing to do is for websites to place a banner that if you are a EU citizen, you are not welcome or allowed to view the website and are violating the terms of service.

<comment><USER15> Forced labor? Forced speech? Demanding others time without compensation? What is Europe becoming?

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have never understood why HN does not do like Reddit – replacing the username by [deleted] or ghost.

</comment><comment><USER17> Are they under any obligation to?

<comment><USER18> _The regulation applies if the data controller, an organisation that collects data from EU residents, or processor, an organisation that processes data on behalf of data controller like cloud service providers or the data subject (person) is based in the EU.

The regulation also applies to organisations based outside the EU if they collect or process personal data of individuals located inside the EU. According to the European Commission, "personal data is any information relating to an individual, whether it relates to his or her private, professional or public life. It can be anything from a name, a home address, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer's IP address."_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regula...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regulation#Scope)

<comment><USER19> So all web sites (most, anyway) are subject to the GDPR because they may record EU IP addresses in logs?

<comment><USER8> Yup, which is what makes GDPR so dangerous.

<comment><USER20> Massachusetts is attempting to promulgate sales taxes on out of state Internet purchases using similar logic applied to cookies [0]. It seems that all it takes is nouns being put on these things, for that parasitic ambient authority to attempt to jam itself in.

Having said that, as a USian, it seems like it's at least possible for EU regulation to have its intended effects (/me glances at uUSB connectors on everything). So, especially because I bear no responsibility for its existence, I'm cautiously optimistic that the GPDR will do some good pushing back against the surveillance industry, rather than simply being yet another tool to strip individuals' freedoms away.

[0] Hey, maybe if it holds up in court, it will spur development and adoption of browser-based nym management!

<comment><USER17> It seems a little different if we're talking about selling and shipping goods to a territory.

<comment><USER20> Per US federal law, retailers are only responsible for collecting a given state's sales tax if they have a physical presence in that state. The legal theory specifically relies on considering the cookie on the user's computer as a physical presence in the state.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> A particularly ugly thing happens if the HN mods for some good or bad reason decide to ban an account: their contributions will be there forever, with no ability to append explanations to previous posts.

This will after May 25 be illegal for services offered in the EU, but I kind of think that the same courtesy should apply to non-europeans.

<comment> aaron-lebo Not to devalue privacy (at all), but if the GDPR is so far reaching that anonymous posts are expected to comply with this, that destroys much discussion. Don't see why that's a reasonable expectation. That's no longer private but public data.

If you contribute to public knowledge/discussion, then taking your ball and going home leaves huge gaps in history, the same way you see [deleted] throughout many Reddit threads.

Is the GDPR that far reaching?

<comment><AUTHOR> The GDPR only cares about privacy, not quality of internet threads.</comment></comment></comment>


Ubuntu's desktop "on its own will die" - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/08/why-ubuntus-creator-still-invests-his-fortune-in-an-unprofitable-company

<comment><USER2> Wow, brand new respect for Canonical here.</comment>


Aerial Imagery of 95% of New Zealand released under open license - <AUTHOR> https://data.linz.govt.nz/x/vuozYk

<comment><USER2> The license is: CC BY 3.0 NZ [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/)

<comment><USER3> Why exactly is there a "New Zealand" version of the license, and how does it differ from the regular CC BY 3.0 ?

<comment><USER4> In pre-4.0 versions of the CC licenses, they produced "ported" versions that were intended to adapt the general principles of each license to the specifics of each jurisdiction's norms/terminology. 4.0 seems to have dropped that and written "international" licenses instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Finland has had this since 2012. It really helps small companies who develop gis and map applications as well as hobbyists.

[http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/opendata](http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/opendata)

[http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/opendata/list-of-the- digi...](http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/opendata/list-of-the-digital-data- products-to-be-opened)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not just small companies - the highest users of this data are large engineering consultancies, research institutions are various central and local government agencies. Then GIS firms, architects and planners. Hobbyists use the data, for sure, but there are massive economic benefits in this data, for many industries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Minecraft version or it didn't happen ;)

Great to see more and more of these official maps becoming available.

Is this something that can be (has been?) incorporated into the likes of OpenStreetMap? The full dataset (544GB) is available to download or order, so presumably it is technically possible.

<comment><USER7> Not necessarily. OpenStreetMap relies on users to digitize features. Many of the OSM editors already include imagery from other providers. My guess would be digitizing from this imagery would not be much different and not worth the effort. The Landsat [1] program is another great contribution for imagery. Though lately programs like these have been in jeopardy with the congressional cut of everything science [2].

[1] [http://landsatlook.usgs.gov/](http://landsatlook.usgs.gov/) [2] [http://ens-newswire.com/2013/08/08/uncertain-funding-jeopard...](http://ens- newswire.com/2013/08/08/uncertain-funding-jeopardizes-u-s-land-imaging- satellites/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Would be really cool if Aerofly ([http://www.aeroflyfs.com/](http://www.aeroflyfs.com/)) did a New Zealand map.

</comment><comment><USER9> First thing I randomly zoomed in on was a sheep.

</comment><comment><USER10> There was an error querying that location.

</comment><comment><USER11> A similar, albeit private yet arguably more intuitive, Australian alternative: [http://nearmap.com/au](http://nearmap.com/au)</comment>


Ask HN: where/how to find programming tutors? - <AUTHOR>

What are some of the successful ways HNers have  found programming tutors/advice?<p>As a junior develop doing contract work, I don't really have access to senior-level engineering advice, and I would pay for the ability to have a stronger / senior engineer mentor me on the week nights/weekends, run through old and current code projects, teach me best practices, etc.  In-person would be ideal, but open to the idea of virtual sessions if there's a good resource out there.<p>(I attend programming-related discussions and hackathons via Meetup, but am looking for more direct mentorship from developers) <comment><USER2> Try hitting people up in their email addresses in their profiles--one of the cool things about the internet is that we can ask people we don't know personally if they'd be interested in corresponding.</comment>


Hard Lessons For Entrepreneurs - Why We Fail - <AUTHOR> http://howtosplitanatom.com/news/hard-lessons-for-entrepreneurs/

<comment><USER2> This is a very nice article; I was surprised.

Too many people out there are depending on some crazy stuff to happen.

<comment><USER3> I had the opposite reaction: a negative article making blanket statements. The guy is angry. In my experience, anger does not usually create wisdom.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey! I actually wrote this article, so I wanted to make a point -- angry is the very last thing I am.

Other than not really having any context to be angry within (I am not speaking about any startup in particular), I generally agree that anger doesn't make innovation.

My point was that many young entrepreneurs have strong misconceptions about what it means to build a business. Every single one of those points are things I have heard from other entrepreneurs, things they -wish- they had known when they first started.

The point is not to discourage people from building business', that's absolutely ludicrous. The point is to get people to see what they are doing without the rose colored glasses and to bring up some common traps that entrepreneurs the world over fall into.

If you have been in business for any length of time, I am sure you realize that putting yourself in perspective is absolutely crucial to your success.

Cheers!</comment></comment></comment>


America Plans to Withdraw from 1987 Nuclear Treaty with Russia - <AUTHOR> http://U.S.AnnouncesPlanstoWithdrawFhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-suspend-obligations-under-1987-nuclear-treaty-with-russia-11549028592 <comment><USER2> url is malformed: https//www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-suspend-obligations- under-1987-nuclear-treaty-with-russia-11549028592

<comment><USER3> [https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-suspend-obligations- unde...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-suspend-obligations- under-1987-nuclear-treaty-with-russia-11549028592)</comment></comment>


Why can't we get rid of taxi medallions? (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/06/taxi_medallions_how_new_york_s_terrible_taxi_system_makes_fares_higher_and_drivers_poorer_.html <comment><AUTHOR> > "A taxi medallion system is nearly impossible to end even if it proves to be > providing unfairly high gains to a limited number of original medallion > owners," the report concluded. "Medallion owners fiercely resist any > possible threat that may challenge their advantage."

It's crazy how defeatist they sound in this article. Little did they know that in just 3 years companies would be struggling to get rid of their medallions, and the taxi lobby would be in ruins.

</comment><comment><USER2> Price is dropping fast.

[http://nycitycab.com/business/taximedallionlist.aspx](http://nycitycab.com/business/taximedallionlist.aspx).

Current owners are putting it up for sale for less than $600,000.

I guess it's uber effect.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, and it's never been easier to get a taxi in NYC. They artificially restricted the supply of medallions since at least the 70s, and that led to a severe undersupply of taxis (especially in the outer boroughs). Uber has largely fixed this.

<comment><USER4> It's even better for the taxi drivers who have to rent the medallions for 12 hour shifts. There were more drivers than taxi's until recently and drivers would bid the rental prices up. It was either that or they didn't make any money. Now garages sit with extra cars.

Instead of paying up to $250 for a shift drivers now have the power and can pick between garages and get a car for $125 now. That's money directly in their pocket.

Every NYC cabbie I've spoken to who doesn't own a medallion loves Uber for precisely this reason. I'm sure it will balance out but certainly not in the garages favor. But for people with a hack license and an Uber account, they have the power to pick and choose which option serves them best today and that might mean driving a cab one day and driving their Uber the next.

It's for precisely this reason I can't see why the left tends to be suspicious of Uber in NYC. I think it's great drivers have agency.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What I don't understand is, why are they allowed to sell the medallions at all? The problems with the medallion system stems from the fact that due to supply/demand problem, their prices skyrocketed. But they should quite simply be non-transferable.

<comment><USER6> If you made medallions nontransferrable then you would see each medallion be owned by its own individual corporation, then the corporation would be sold instead of the medallion.

A fixed term license would be a better idea.

<comment><USER7> If I remember correctly from this[1] Planet Money podcast about a man who owns many medallions, the guy does have separate company names for each medallion.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/31/428157211/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/07/31/428157211/episode-643-the- taxi-king)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Discussed in 2012: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4088941](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4088941).

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. I just stumbled across this and thought it made for amazing reading, considering how much has changed in just 3 years.

<comment><USER8> No kidding. "Uber" appears nowhere in the article.

<comment><USER9> This was right around the time Uber realised what their UberX could be, after seeing Lyft's system be left alone.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Expansion of cytotoxic CD4 T cells in supercentenarians - <AUTHOR> https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/11/11/1907883116 <comment><USER2> Clonal expansion of hematopoietic precursors is something that we see generally as people age [1]. Rather than positing a beneficial role for clonal expansion of cytotoxic T cells, my null hypothesis would be that this clonal expansion is simply another marker of aging.

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

<comment><AUTHOR> That disregards the possibility that certain clonal expansions could be beneficial. General clonal expansion may be correlated with aging, but some clonal expansion may concern extended longevity.

<comment><USER2> It doesn't disregard that hypothesis. The hypothesis is interesting. But it's not my default hypothesis; it's the alternative hypothesis.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can anyone explain in layman terms what this means? Does it mean that supercentenarians' immune system posses a unique ability to kill cells?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, cytotoxicity is the ability to destroy cells. Most CD4 T cells are not cytotoxic, regardless of the host's age. In the Supercentenarians studied here, it was observed that the majority of their CD4 T cells were cytotoxic, which is a very surprising result.

Having more cytotoxic CD4 T's could give the immune system better ability to destroy invaders or cancer cells.

Even more surprising is that a large percentage of these mutant CD4 T's are clonal, all traceable back to one individual (T cell) that mutated.

It's been shown that supercentenarians enjoy resistance to disease over their entire lives. This research shows that may be due to their unique immune systems.

<comment><USER4> With full knowledge I am being an armchair statistician, wouldn't it be difficult to tell the difference between supercentenarians having extraordinary resistance to disease and supercentenarians being the ones who got lucky? Perhaps getting diseases is bad for your longevity!

<comment><USER5> These are not mutually exclusive possibilities: "a large percentage of these mutant CD4 T's are clonal, all traceable back to one individual (T cell) that mutated."</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Find out who's wasting your Adwords budget and stops them, for good - <AUTHOR> http://www.addstop.com <comment><AUTHOR> Spending your Adwords budget on the wrong customers? STOP finds who's wasting your Adwords budget and stops them, for good.

Stop who? Stop competitors and irrelevant companies clicking on your Adwords Stop academics and universities clicking on your Adwords Stop anyone else clicking on your Adwords.

How does it work? There's a lot going on behind the scenes. STOP identifies the companies, organizations, universities and others into a list so you can review. If you don't like any of them, simply press 'STOP' and the tool will talk directly to Google Adwords to stop advertising directly to them.</comment>


Riddle of cement's structure is finally solved - <AUTHOR> http://news.mit.edu/2016/cement-structure-solved-0208 <comment><USER2> I love these base-level, practical advances where even a slight improvement in a formula (provided it is not closely guarded) can, say, improve the strength of a material by 5-10%, meaning that much less of it must be used, which at a scale like concrete's can make for huge changes in usage, markets, processes etc.

<comment><USER3> Concrete is a HUGE greenhouse gas source, so this is also a great boon for the environment. It's estimated that concrete is responsible for 5% of all anthropogenic CO2.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concre...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concrete#Carbon_dioxide_emissions_and_climate_change)

<comment><USER4> I hate to break it, but it could actually have the opposite effect by disproportionately increasing our consumption of concrete.

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

<comment><USER5> At least we get more concrete out of it..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There are more riddles to be discovered

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pyramid_construction_techniques#Limestone_concrete_hypothesis)

Utilizing scanning electron microscopy, they discovered mineral compounds and air bubbles in samples of the limestone pyramid blocks that do not occur in natural limestone.

</comment><comment><USER7> This may be a stupid question, but given the apparent interest and knowledge of concrete in the comments here, it seems like an appropriate time and place to ask:

Why can't they make coloured concrete?

Painting it doesn't seem to last/work. It is grey, always grey. Is there no way to apply colour to the mixture and retain its strength?

<comment><USER8> > It is grey, always grey.

Check out Decorative Concrete:

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

[https://www.pinterest.com/explore/decorative- concrete/](https://www.pinterest.com/explore/decorative-concrete/)

Bonus 1) Translucent Concrete:

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

[http://google.com/search?tbm=isch&gws_rd=cr&q=translucent+co...](http://google.com/search?tbm=isch&gws_rd=cr&q=translucent+concrete)

Bonus 2) White Concrete, using Titanium Dioxide admixture, also cleans itself and its environment:

[http://google.com/search?tbm=isch&gws_rd=cr&q=concrete+tio2](http://google.com/search?tbm=isch&gws_rd=cr&q=concrete+tio2)

Bonus 3) Nanomaterials add a lot of new potential for strength, possibly color, as well as completely new applications. For instance, carbon nanotubes make concrete slightly electrically conductive, which makes it possible to do easy integrity testing, visible from low voltage current fluctuations near stresses, strains, cracks, etc. I wish I had more info on a prospective range of applications here.

Aside A) Clays (of possibly many colors) can also provide an even cheaper, more readily available, and similarly strong building material. Sindhi researchers pre-stressed and baked some test beams, and they were just about as strong as comparable concrete. See Emergence of New Era for Reinforced Baked Clay Construction (Memon, Bhatti, & Ansari): [http://www.quest.edu.pk/rjournals/julydec2013/julydec2013_1....](http://www.quest.edu.pk/rjournals/julydec2013/julydec2013_1.pdf) I sincerely wonder how this ongoing wealth of research on concrete plus many generations old, likely undocumented, skill we have with clay construction could come together.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Here's the PNAS article that they don't link to in the article for some reason: [http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/02/04/1520487113.abst...](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/02/04/1520487113.abstract)

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the link, but it is in the article. On news.mit.edu articles, when they do include links to papers, the links are presented in the "RELATED" list on the right side. They don't always remember to give links to papers, but they are better about it than the press/news sites of most universities.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is great! Basically cement is a fractal substance. Are there other known fractal substances?

<comment><USER12> [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2577851](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2577851) from 1988 starts:

> In recent years it has been shown that the structures of a wide variety of > colloidal aggregates can be described in terms of the concepts of fractal > geometry. The purpose of this review is to discuss some of the evidence for > fractal geometry in experimental systems and indicate how fractal geometry > can be used to develop a better understanding of their aggregation kinetics > and physical properties.

so I think the answer is "many". Try [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=fractal+material](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=fractal+material) for some pointers.

<comment><USER11> Thank you so much for the pointers. So fascinating!

<comment><USER12> Google Scholar is a great resource for these sorts of research-oriented questions. I hope you continue to find it useful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> In case you are not already excited by discoveries in concrete, this should help: [https://gimletmedia.com/episode/3-concrete/](https://gimletmedia.com/episode/3-concrete/)</comment>


Open source maps and their alternatives - <AUTHOR> http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/licensing/newsletter/201205/didyouknow/ <comment><USER2> Interesting, so far commercial map providers have been ignoring OpenStreetMap completely. I guess European countries opening their map data, OSM in general getting better, and some recent moves from software companies to switch to OSM ([http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2158521/Apple- Foursquar...](http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2158521/Apple-Foursquare- Ditch-Google-Maps-for-OpenStreetMap)) have prompted this reaction.</comment>


Digital.nyc – NYC's hub for tech and startups - <AUTHOR> http://www.digital.nyc

<comment><AUTHOR> According to [1], digital.nyc seems to have been built with IBM's Bluemix. Has anyone here built anything with Bluemix?

[1] [http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/463-14/mayor- de...](http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/463-14/mayor-de-blasio- digital-nyc-first-ever-all-inclusive-online-hub-the-city-s-tech/#/0)

<comment><USER2> I deployed a small node app with BlueMix. I did not use many of its advanced features, and it was relatively painless to get things running. I would consider using it for a bigger project in the future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Cool, but they're grouping startups and established tech companies together under the umbrella term "startups"</comment>


Show HN: My midweek project - karmurl - <AUTHOR>

Inspired by the following post by photon_off...
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1683309
I made karmurl last night. It's a simple app where you submit a URL for feedback, then for every piece of feedback you give to someone else's, you get to read one piece of feedback for yours.
http://karmurl.com <comment><USER2> Love the idea, though: 1) email me when new feedback is received, 2) let me reply to people's feedback, and 3) preferably don't show me sites I've skipped, and definitely don't show me sites I've already given feedback to.

Good work!

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm addicted to this, actually finished giving feedback to all 12 sites for review.

Although I've already given feedback within the app, I'll just repeat myself here.

1\. It would be great to able to continue a conversation with the person who has given you feedback, right now, you just see the feedback given to you.

2\. I think it's important to get to know the person giving you feedback because from there you'll be able to tell whether he is the right type of user for your app.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://feedbackroulette.com> already does something very similar.

</comment><comment><USER5> It seems perfect. It's small, usable and looks good. It would definitely would be useful for startups.

</comment><comment><USER6> Looks great - really good idea, thanks for making it.

Not sure if it's just me, but it doesn't display the full page when showing me someones site to review - it shows the top third and then just grey space (using the latest version of Chrome on a Mac).

<comment><USER7> Same here. FF6 on Mac.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You might want to consider not showing a user a site that he/she has already reviewed (i.e., don't let me review the same site twice).

Great idea and nice simple execution, just reviewed a few sites!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks.

That's a really good idea. I just put it together in a few hours and hadn't thought that far ahead :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> What a delightfully simple and useful app. I could use this all day long.

Thanks for making this.

Edit: I keep getting the test site asking me to skip. Maybe you should remove it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Wonderful little app. I would actually spend some time going through it if I wasn't at work. Speaking of which, is there any process put in place to filter the sites people input?

</comment><comment><USER11> Love your site! I've already gotten back so much useful feedback, thank you! I agree with freshlog, it would be great to converse with the person who has given the feedback.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'd e-mail users when new review is added. This way users know when to come back to the site and will make it more engaging.

</comment><comment><USER13> Could you put 'how this site works' on the side, so I don't have to click on anything to get this info?

</comment><comment><USER14> Small request: a favicon!

I really like this idea, would use it a lot on the upcoming days.</comment>


High-Performance GPU Computing in the Julia Programming Language (2017) - open-source-ux https://devblogs.nvidia.com/gpu-computing-julia-programming-language/ <comment><AUTHOR> Author here, happy to answer any questions! We've been developing and maintaining this toolchain for a while now, so the relevant packages (CUDAnative.jl for kernel programming, CuArrays.jl for a GPU array abstraction) are much more mature. Our focus has recently been on implementing a common base of array operations that can be used across devices (GPU, CPU, etc), so that users can develop using the base CPU array type, quickly benefit from a GPU by switching to CuArrays, only to rely on specific CUDA-specific functionality from CuArrays/CUDAnative when they need custom functionality.

</comment><comment><USER2> Julia is one of my fav languages. For numerical computing, neither python + numpy, nor matlab come even close. The interop is nuts. To call, say numpy fft, you just do

using PyCall

np = pyimport("numpy")

res = np.fft.fft(rand(ComplexF64, 10))

No casting back and forth. This is a toy example, julia ofc has fftw bindings.

Interop with C++, MATLAB, Mathematica etc is similarly simple.

<comment><USER3> In theory Julia is supposed to be fantastic.

In practice, things either don't exist, or are poorly implemented:

Plotting simple things take 30 seconds.

And that's if you don't count the time it takes to `] add Plots`, especially on Windows!

And the REPL is broken.

And the editor is slow and annoying (Juno or vscode).

And documentation ranges from poor (no examples, buggy between platforms, broken links due to version updates) to non-existent. For example, lots of tutorials will often link to broken links to official documentation, links that one time were thought to be working but now aren't.

And so on...

<comment><USER4> Yes plotting in Julia is slow upon first invocation due to the JIT. Annoys me too, but to say the REPL is broken is profoundly puzzling to me. It is the best REPL I have ever used. It beats anything I have used for Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Lua etc.

Also your documentation issue is also strange. Yes certain things don't exist but I would say the Julia docs is quite well made. In particular if you use the REPL documentation I find it much better than Python. Tends to be quite nice examples, color coding etc.

<comment><USER5> > It is the best REPL I have ever used. It beats anything I have used for > Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Lua etc.

This is true, but that's a _very_ low bar to pass. Julia is a Lisp, and deserve to be compared to other Lisps rather than to lesser languages. Every Common Lisp or Scheme I have used has a vastly superior REPL experience than Julia. Even Clojure is better.

Don't get me wrong: I love Julia, and I hope it will eventually replace Python as the main language for scientific computing, data science and machine learning. But the REPL experience, at this point, leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sure it will improve in the future.

<comment><USER6> I'm curious what specifically you would want improved in the REPL.

<comment><USER3> Does the REPL on Windows have all the features and niceties and quality of life of the REPL on bash or other OSes?

If so (which isn't), then we can start suggesting new features, perhaps better text editing capabilities, or introspection, better access to documentation.

<comment><USER6> The REPL on all platforms is the same. There's an issue with old buggy versions of cmd.exe, but that's only on such old versions of Windows that they're not even supported by Microsoft anymore.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Just pointing out that this is an article from 2017 and was discussed before on hn [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15564639](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15564639)

</comment><comment><USER8> I always glad to see topics about Julia. I think it has good potential to replace several other languages with one better language.

</comment><comment><USER9> Why this infrastructure is so tightly coupled with CUDA? CUDA is very specific and closed APIs for NVidia hardware only. Programming languages should focus on more general primitives that might work on NVidia or TPUs or something else. PyTorch also has CUDA all over in its APIs and its frustrating to see such tight binding with closed one company API. Also take a look at OpenCL.

<comment><USER10> It's because CUDA performs better. It's not nice, but it's the situation we're living in. Particularly AMD support and performance are lot.

<comment><USER11> It doesn't perform better than what you can do in Vulkan. It's simply more entrenched.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Julia is presented as a simple language, but is is anything but that in practice.

<comment><USER13> Julia is not presented as a simple language, it's presented as a "I want everything" language [1], a Python-Ruby-Perl-C-Fortran-Lisp-Matlab crossover with it's own unique spice. Which is completely opposite from something like Go. You can start programming knowing only one of Julia's inspiration, for example programming Julia like Python, but if you want all the language brings you'll have to dive in a lot of the other sides (which might clash a little with the cleverness of the compiler, as it will accept such varied styles it will not guide you to the one through way of idiomatic Julia code).

Still the Julia team did a great job in making all those diverse features feel part of one connected philosophy instead of an ad hoc pile of functionality, even if it does take a little while to fully internalize it.

[1] [https://julialang.org/blog/2012/02/why-we-created- julia](https://julialang.org/blog/2012/02/why-we-created-julia)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> _> The performance possibilities of GPUs can be democratized by providing more high-level tools that are easy to use by a large community of applied mathematicians and machine learning programmers._

How exactly CUDA is "democratizing" anything, if it's tied to Nvidia? Vulkan backend would make more sense for that purpose.

<comment><USER14> That sentence explains perfectly well what it means by democratizing, and how is independent of the platform being tied to nvidia.

<comment><USER11> Can you elaborate please? I was under the impression that CUDA is tied to Nvidia, unless you mean there are now working shims for other GPUs.

<comment><USER15> CUDA is ultimately an API. AMD even has a converter for transforming CUDA cuda to something more portable[0].

While it would be better in a democratic sense for GPUs to be accessed using a fully free API, having an easily usable proprietary API is still more democratic than a difficult-to-use API (especially when, as here, the easy-to- use layer is actually fully free, and can perhaps be retargeted to fully free lower layers later).

[0]: [https://gpuopen.com/compute-product/hip-convert-cuda-to- port...](https://gpuopen.com/compute-product/hip-convert-cuda-to-portable-c- code/)

<comment><USER11> It still looks like porting idea, not like a shim that makes CUDA run on AMD. So I'd say CUDA is still locked to Nvidia. AMD are trying to ease up the transition to portable options - that's surely good, but it's not a full fledged lock-in unlocking.

I'd say, Nvidia are being hypocritical here, with this whole "democratizing" claim. They are direct beneficiaries of the lock-in they are advancing with it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Twitter API returning results that do not respect the arrow of time - <AUTHOR> http://twitterbug.quietbabylon.com/

<comment><USER2> I love the medium used to tell this story, it made everything seem so real.

</comment><comment><USER3> I enjoyed it but was probably most upset with the suggestion that Pres. Obama would be running for a third term? Broke my brief encapsulation with the story.

<comment><USER4> I read that part of the story to mean that people were tweeting nonsense about who won the next election, not that Obama was actually running.

<comment><USER5> Obama can't run for a second term. That violates the constitution.

<comment><USER6> He can't be elected for a third term under the Constitution _as currently written_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice, but with <https://twitter.com/timebot> empty of tweets I can't help but feel cheated.

<comment><USER7> Or is it because timebot hasn't been created yet? Hmmm....

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I love these hidden stories. Reminds me of the comp.basilisk faq at <http://ansible.co.uk/writing/c-b-faq.html>

<comment><USER9> Very nice. I believe it is inspired by the original BLIT: <http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm> a delightful short story.

along with other related stories listed here: <http://ansible.co.uk/books/dkod.html>

<comment><USER10> If people find those interesting, I strongly suggest that they check out Charles Stross's Laundry series.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Very cool. Just earlier this week I was wondering how someone could take some of the unique storytelling ideas from the likes of Borges and adapt them to modern media. The definitely feels like a step in that direction.

</comment><comment><USER12> This makes for an interesting thought experiment:

Maybe all the people I follow on Twitter but don't know in real life aren't real, but merely a series of pre-generated messages, served up by a scheduler.

Replies are done with fancy natural language processing and monitoring of what's popular on the web. Retweets and follows are triggered by your social graph and cookie history.

</comment><comment><USER13> My favorite part about this link is that all the comments on HN are almost exclusively one line long. I read all 12 in about 30 seconds.

</comment><comment><USER14> I used to get results from the Getty Images API when I'd call it with future time ranges. Most of the photos were from the next week, but there were always a few handfuls from months and years in the future. Just a bug and bad metadata, not time travel. It did allow me to surface photos before they showed up on Getty though.

</comment><comment><USER15> I just had to Google "vertiginous," but that's an interesting word I'd like to use in the future.

<comment><USER16> vertiginous - To be affected by Vertigo

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I like the tip of the hat to Terry Pratchett's L-Space (<http://disc.osiris- web.com/mediawiki/index.php/L-space>) idea of large quantities of books warping space and time.

</comment><comment><USER18> Some more information about the arrow of time as used in physics... [http://asankhaya.blogspot.sg/2012/05/time-travel-arrow-of- ti...](http://asankhaya.blogspot.sg/2012/05/time-travel-arrow-of-time.html)

</comment><comment><USER19> Made me think much harder than I thought I would this Memorial Day. Cheers.

</comment><comment><USER20> Its all fun and games until you get a tweet from 1902.

</comment><comment><USER21> Interesting read. Obviously not real, its not like hes the only one using the API. And the fact it involves time travel.

<comment><USER22> I don't use Twitter, but I'm a reluctant Facebooker (because everyone in my family and a few good friends use it), and it actually suffers from a more realistic version of this problem. I frequently see posts that are like 3 weeks old popping up at the top of my feed, posts that it also showed me 3 weeks ago.

<comment><USER23> That usually happens there has been a new action related to the post (i.e. someone liked it and/or someone commented on it) which I like because some people use facebook infrequently and it allows you to see their comments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is a genius way to tell a story. Thoroughly enjoyed it.</comment>


Avaya files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/avaya-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-wont-sell-contact-center-assets/ <comment><AUTHOR> About 5 years ago, I helped move my previous employer from an Avaya digital phone system (a 2-wire system) to Cisco VoIP. It remarkably stable, though the old Avaya system took up 3 racks of space. The Cisco system took up about 10 U, but was regularly annoying.

<comment><USER2> I've seen 30 year old AT&T Merlin systems, which evolved into Avaya, still working.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Bitcharge – The easiest way to accept multiple crypto for freelancers - <AUTHOR> https://bitcharge.co?ref=hackernews <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone,

I recently created something called Bitcharge, an easy way for freelancers, businesses and just regular people to accept crypto payments in multiple cryptocurrencies. All you have to do is create your profile, get a link and share it with the world. As an example you can take a look at my profile. ([https://bitcharge.co/yogesh](https://bitcharge.co/yogesh))

The idea came from a personal frustration I had while I was working as freelancer in the crypto space. It was getting difficult to manage all the addresses I had to send for client payments and making sure there aren't any typos and also verify if the addresses are active.

At the cusp of it, it's nothing more than a url that you can use to share your crypto addresses with the world with a single link.

I would love to hear your thoughts, and I am more than happy to answers any questions you have about the product or anything else.</comment>


The wonderful horrible life of Facebook users and their data (or, "data hogs get slaughtered") - <AUTHOR> http://www.calacanis.com/2007/11/25/the-wonderful-horrible-life-of-facebook-users-and-their-data-or/ <comment><USER2> I suggest calacanis should just focus on his ill-fated "search engine" and stop worrying about Facebook.</comment>


Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana - <AUTHOR> https://www.gq.com/story/the-great-pot-monopoly-mystery <comment><USER2> I went ahead and looked up these patents. This one looks particularly bad:

[https://www.google.com/patents/US9370164](https://www.google.com/patents/US9370164)

This basically grants them a patent on every single cannabis plant which has >3% THC and CBD, and which Myrcene is not the dominant terpine. Can anyone who knows their bud say which strains this could be applied to?

Also, the specification on this is HUGE. This represents a large investment; they're going to filing continuations on this until the cows come home.

EDIT: I found this website: [http://analytical360.com/](http://analytical360.com/)

This lists a number of strains that could potentially read on this, such as Gorilla Glue: [http://analytical360.com/m/archived/261533](http://analytical360.com/m/archived/261533)

<comment><USER3> Myrcene is the dominant terpene in all strains of cannabis according to this study: [http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.ht...](http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.html)

Cannabis has been cultivated and sold illegally in the US for almost a century. It seems unlikely that the USPTO would be able to enforce compliance when law enforcement has not.

<comment><USER4> Legal marijuana will push out illegal marijuana. Large, industrial farms will outcompete anyone who is growing illegally.

And that is going to make it much easier to regulate. Patents have the potential to pick the winners in this industry if they are handed out irresponsibily.

<comment><USER5> Currently, the black market can provide cannabis in colorado, california or oregon for about half the price of the legal market (and generally, if you wanted half a lb to stock up for personal use, you can't just go buy it at a store anyway). Part of the lower price is due to competition from legal sources, part due to not paying taxes.

Personally, I would rather grow it at home exactly like tomatoes, if it's herb.

Most of the action these days is in extracts and fine products for connoisseurs. Don't underestimate the semi-luxury market - the same demographic who support microbreweries and small coffee roasters like cannabis. While there will be giant mass market Wal-Weed, and also large plantations like the wine complex of Napa, there will also be a lot, lot of small growers, extractors and breeders.

<comment><USER6> Ah, growing cannabis isn't quite like growing tomatoes. Growing tomatoes is something that a tomato plant does more or less of its own accord. Cannabis really wants to be 15 feet tall and to produce lots of little seeds. Getting it to exclusively produce flowers requires a bit more effort. The 15 feet tall thing may also require some adjustment.

What I'd like to do is to create something about refrigerator-sized which would use hydroponics to get cannabis growing as close to being a push-button operation as possible. I built a prototype a few years ago that was at least able to provide the entertainment of being able to control the lights/fans/pumps via cron job, but life hasn't worked out to be able to do that again. I do think there's a market for such things for pretty much the reasons you identify.

<comment><USER7> I think you missed the analogy. Firstly, it isn't about the amount of work required, because growing good tomatoes requires work as well. Yes, a tomato seed will produce tomatoes on its own, but so will cannabis produce flowers. But in both cases the product might not be as satisfactory as you'd like. You may lose some tomatoes to bugs, and they may not be very big. Same with cannabis, it may be seeded out if there are males around.

Secondly, I think the analogy was more about the enthusiasm a home gardener has, where tomatoes are often something they would grow. So the poster above meant that they'd rather cannabis to be regulated in the same way tomatoes are: you can grow them without regulation at your house, but if you want to sell them commercially (to stores and restaurants) then further licensing is required.

<comment><USER6> I suppose I wasn't clear enough. I do think that his characterization of the social role of cannabis is accurate, but the technical challenges are a bit different. Which is mostly just an opportunity to mention my personal technological interest in this. Which may not be quite entirely topical.

<comment><USER7> I think that the technical challenges of growing cannabis vs. tomatoes is indeed different, but can be equally difficult or simple, related to the quality of the product you want. There are similar such inventions for growing tomatoes to what you mention for cannabis. Tomatoes too have a long history of breeding for size and other aspects as well, again similar to cannabis. You can grow "ditch weed" just as easily as poor quality tomatoes by not tending the plants etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Ah, patents again. Who wants free markets when you can have a winner-take-all system based on government-granted monopolies.

<comment><USER9> Ah, capitalism. Who wants the free association of individual producers as labourers when you can have wage labour and the cycle of capital crisis in a commodity economy backed up by the State acting on behalf of the property owners for the benefit of the rich to the detriment of the poor as Adam Smith noted even in the 18th century?

The free market was so called because it is free from control of its participants :)

Edit: To be clear, I'm arguing against capitalism as a manifestation of freedom, I'm sure we both agree that patents and copyrights should not exist in a free society, though.

<comment><USER10> Ah, socialism. Who wants a non-totalitarian state when you can just enslave the people like all the utopian socialist societies.

Oh, are we just being hyperbolic? A capitalist would say a socialist is wrong and this is cronyism. A socialist would say capitalism is wrong and this is cronyism.

<comment><USER11> man, 'socialist' really has a branding problem

Guess the european nations are going to simply need a new word in order to stop being conflated with North Korea, and former european nations

<comment><USER12> Socialism does not mean redistribution. There are currently no socialist countries in Europe, if we take the definition of socialism as social ownership and democratic control of the _means of production_. Some socialist policies are implemented in some sectors of the economy and society in some countries, but there is no country in Europe where this is true for large enough parts of the economy.

<comment><USER11> Yeah but any politically active "socialist" in America is talking about "implementing some socialist policies in some sectors of the economy and society" just like in Western Europe

and gets run out by other Americans in all levels of society that imagine North Korea because of the word alone

branding problem. if you are talking about one thing and the other people don't understand, then the language isn't working.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Headline of this evening's South China Morning Post: How China Quietly Grew Into a Cannabis Superpower

[http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2108347/green...](http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2108347/green- gold-how-china-quietly-grew-cannabis-superpower)

Article states that more than half of the 600 patents related to cannabis are held in China. Unclear if they relate to industrial hemp or medicinal uses.

The race to get coveted FDA approval is even more heated. If GW Pharmaceuticals' stock price is any indication, it may be first out the gate with its CBD-based epilepsy treatment, Epidiolex.

A powerful drug derived from marijuana is on the cusp of federal approval

[http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-epilepsy- drug-2017-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-epilepsy-drug-2017-5)

</comment><comment><USER14> Its amazing that we at all allow the possibility of a field brimming with promise, that resulted in so much oppression to poor minorites, to be suddenly, just as the moment turned towards freedom, captured and terms dictated by a small group of rich people when others have bled, been deprived of their freedom, and were there first.

</comment><comment><USER15> This is absurd. If these patents are ever enforced, I hope the cannabis industry doesn't stop until they've destroyed this company, the people who run it, and anyone who associates with them. In a court of law or otherwise.

<comment><USER16> they already are for soy and corn et al...

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I once had an economics professor who insisted the bigger hurdle to marijuana legalization was monetizing it. It's a quite unique cash crop in that it only takes a small area and small amout of labor to produce large supply. His words, paraphrased: "You can grow enough marijuana in your basement to meet the demands of your whole neighborhood! And it's a difficult thing to patent to use IP ownership as a revenue model..."

Looks like BioTech Institute LLC (and I'm sure lots of others) are trying to address the second point.

<comment><USER18> It's also extremely simple to produce enough alcohol for your entire neighborhood in your basement with a home-made still.

That has not stopped the monetization of alcohol...

People who want to make billions from this will simply lobby until there are extremely strict laws in place to protect their profits, and then also lobby to make sure there are wars and extremely strict punishments for violators of those laws.

<comment><USER19> Even the easiest homebrewing requires more knowledge and skill than dumping some seeds in your garden, which is literally all you need to do to get an acceptable crop of _weed_

<comment><USER20> Acceptable certainly is relative. If you just "dumped some seeds in your garden", you would get seedy, low-grade crap weed, regardless of what strain you planted. Good weed requires proper attention and care.

<comment><USER21> Wont kill them or blind them. Will get them High. Wont taste that good.bad weed is More acceptable than Bad alcohol

<comment><USER22> At worst, any weed being sold today will make for fantastic edibles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> What is the current state of Case Law with regard to DNA in the US? And how, if at all, would this carry over to the genetics of plants?

How much of a natural product is it safe to say is patentable? And how much of the patent has to depend on things like "processes of manufacturing", etc?

</comment><comment><USER24> What annoys me is I was trying to tell people this was were this was headed. I suspect Monsanto is the big player or affiliated with whoever it is.

The right to grow needs yo be solidified.

<comment><USER25> If you'd read the article, you'd know it's not Monsanto.

<comment><USER26> It would not be surprising if they were counting on the possibility of selling to the giants like Monsanto. The giants don't dare get involved directly at the early stage, just too much legal and reputational danger, but they are one of the logical exits for people who can go in earlier and lock up all the IP.

<comment><USER10> Honestly the biggest fear is you can't lawfully use water to grow your own food. Patents be damned, you will be in jail in many states if your water use wasn't to just poop in a toilet. I guess people in a desert like Phoenix will be able to justify a grass lawn and a pool via some absurd use of water law.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The sad thing about growing up is that most of the magic unicorns die. Yes, it is a nice story, but if it is not the 1 in a million exceptional story it's probably one of the five big players behind this company. And if they really are close to getting a legal lock on the market the other big players are either making deals with them already behind closed doors or they are partnering up and we'll soon see legal battles about these patents.

For the end result it also doesn't really matter how the fight will go. Either 1, 2 or 3 of them will find a balance that all of them can live with and the rest of the market will just die, starting from the smaller participants, either by going bankrupt or by merging with bigger players. Soon everything will become legal and you can buy standardized packages in the super market with a few illegal players continuing to gamble against the law but never really making big bucks out of it.

</comment><comment><USER25> Great article.

I love good journalism like this. Well written, informative, and interesting.

Thanks for sharing!

<comment><USER28> I in particular enjoyed the narrative it was woven into -- following the steps of the investigation bit by bit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Nobody filed a post-grant objection. It's easy to challenge a patent in the first 9 months, but 9,370,164 has been out for more than a year.

</comment><comment><USER30> Funny....my cousin just got locked up for that a few weeks ago.

<comment><USER31> Tell him to move somewhere that it's legal.

<comment><USER32> His ability to move now might be impeded.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> So everybody goes back to growing it surreptitiously.</comment>


Remote Code Execution Flaws Found in Popular OS Powering Embedded Systems - <AUTHOR> https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/remote-code-execution-flaws-found-in-popular-os-powering-embedded-systems/ <comment><USER2> From the Changelog:

Multiple security improvements and fixes in packet parsing routines, DNA caching, and TCP sequence number and ID generation.

Disable NBNS and LLMNR by default.

Add TCP hang protection by default

[https://github.com/aws/amazon- freertos/blob/master/lib/FreeR...](https://github.com/aws/amazon- freertos/blob/master/lib/FreeRTOS-Plus-TCP/source/History.txt)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.freertos.org/](https://www.freertos.org/)</comment>


Insurance Startup Oscar Quits Two Markets, Rethinks Obamacare Plans - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-23/insurance-startup-oscar-quits-markets-rethinks-obamacare-plans?cmpid=BBD082316_BIZ <comment><USER4> I just don't see how an operation like Oscar fits into the US healthcare landscape. If the benefits are denominated in dollars and you don't have strong negotiating power (Aenta) and are not vertically integrated with the health care provider (Kaiser), how can you not be screwed? The provider can bill $5000 for one Advil and there's little that can be done about that.

There's no way out of this problem except federal laws that sets the prices of services. Ibuprofen has a market price of less than a penny per milligram and that should be the end of the story. It shouldn't be possible to bill them at $100 each just because the patient couldn't object. As long as we have a system where the prices for goods and services come as a complete surprise to everybody, it is impossible to have a working "market" for insurance against risk.

<comment><USER5> Until we disconnect healthcare from a job then pricing will be out of wack and way off market value. Once healthcare is more consumer focused and everyone has individual plans then pricing can be scrutinized. Currently it is a backdoor game with insurance and health services greatly disconnected from the customer.

We don't get auto, life, home or any other insurance from our companies, nor should we, so why do we still do healthcare? It causes all sorts of problems (starting business, stuck in jobs/quitting is more difficult, ageism, etc). Imagine if all your insurance for your auto, home and life ended when you quit a job, it is silly that healthcare does for people without individual plans.

Also companies like Aetna and BlueCross are company focused, very different than in auto, home or even life insurance where it has to be mostly individual focused (think Geico, Progressive, Nationwide).

We need to disallow getting healthcare from an employer (money can be given to help pay it but as salary). This has to change first otherwise every price control is still set in a closed fantasy market and will never change the game, far disconnected from the user product/service market value.

<comment><USER6> > We don't get auto, life, home or any other insurance from our companies, nor > should we, so why do we still do healthcare?

Health insurance isn't like auto or home insurance, because it's not purely insurance. Some part of it is, because you're insuring against the risk of rare and catastrophic conditions, but a good chunk of it is covering routine care, which is by definition predictable. Under an insurance model, the insured price of a routine procedure would always be slightly _higher_ than the out-of-pocket (uninsured) price.

The phrase "health insurance" is misleading. Real insurance has a negative expected value - you pay slightly more in expectation in exchange for having a lower variance on your possible outcomes. But people don't want that with health "insurance". They want health insurance to cover things that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford, both routine and catastrophic. That's not insurance, which is why comparing health insurance to any other form of insurance doesn't really make sense.

<comment><USER7> > a good chunk of it is covering routine care, which is by definition > predictable

I'm curious to know what you consider "routine" here? I'm trying to think of what I'd call routine NHS care and the examples I can come up with are childhood vaccinations (not employees), elder care (not employees, medicare in the US), OTC trivia like paracetamol (not exactly covered in either system), and population screening programmes like for breast and other cancers.

Then there's chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, and the question of whether people who've lost that particular lottery should have a permanently lower standard of living or not.

<comment><USER8> If you have children, it's pretty statistically likely that you'll be in and out of the doctor's office for routine things like ear infections, strep throat, bronchitis, flu. If they play sports, you can tack on sprains, broken bones, x-rays, concussions, and yearly sports physicals.

The difference between paying the copays for all those office visits and paying the uninsured-but-not-in-poverty sticker price is massive.

<comment><USER9> > doctor's office for routine things like ear infections,

Why? There's not much doctors can do for ear infection. (Or strep throat, or flu).

<comment><USER8> You know that, and I know that, but a lot of people drag their kids into the doctor's every time they have the sniffles.

I guess they don't hand out antibiotics like they used to, but I can remember having strep and getting a prescription for penicillin would knock it out in a day or two, whereas suffering along and letting it run its course could take weeks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Oscar had 130,000 customers losing about $100 million a year. OK, that's $770 per customer per year. Plans were under-priced. Did they know they were mis- pricing the plans or did their data fall down?

Here's the thing with ACA -- it's a consistent set of terms and conditions that you can shop against. Some of the terms might not exist otherwise, particularly eliminating pre-existing conditions. Ideally insurance companies would price the plans correctly, operate efficiently, and break even. Then Americans would benefit from access to plans with these shared terms.

But here's the scary thing, that $100 million a year could be from 10-100 expensive patients. Unlimited Lifetime Benefits is a pretty awesome term. I really don't know how you write a policy like that.

It is strange to think you could face the independent mandate while also not having any ACA plan to choose from in your marketplace? Is the mandate specifically waived in these cases?

<comment><USER11> > Unlimited Lifetime Benefits is a pretty awesome term.

I can only speak for Switzerland, but an educated guess is that this is the default just in about every European health insurance system.

And no, you can't be denied (basic) insurance (which covers everything necessary) for a pre-existing condition.

<comment><USER12> I'm an American who has lived in Switzerland. I don't wish to start a debate, but instead to mention that from my limited experience European and American systems have a different definition of "unlimited," and in online discussions this definitional difference seems to result in people talking past each other.

The limits in many European systems appear to be on self-determination. There are real barriers in some circumstances to getting second and third and fourth opinions, additional tests, treatment for infants born premature before a certain week, novel and unproven procedures, etc.

I don't know which healthcare model is preferable. It appears to me the US and European models grew under different historical circumstances and have different failure modes.

Again, not trying to spark debate. Just contributing a personal perspective having lived on both sides.

<comment> vertex-four Note that in at least the UK, you can buy private coverage on top of your NHS coverage. You can access the NHS no matter what, for only your tax money - <USER2> you can also use whatever private provider you like. It's not particularly uncommon as a benefit.

<comment><USER13> Of course, worth noting that while you can opt out of using the NHS you can't opt out of paying for it. Which I'm personally OK with - especially as for many things private healthcare providers rely on the NHS (e.g. the consultant who treats you at a private hospital almost certainly has a "day job" at the NHS as was trained there).

<comment><USER7> .. and in general private providers deal with the complicated uneconomic problematic cases by punting them back to the NHS. The state system is "insurer of last resort", insuring you against the failures of the private insurance system.

I'm OK with it too (in fact have used it since my previous employer offered insurance, so why not) as long as people understand that it's a convenience for people for whom time is more important than money and who want to get prompt treatment for things that are important enough to stop you working but not enough to kill you.

<comment><USER13> My teenage son had his tonsils taken out a couple of years back at a private UK hospital (under my work coverage) and after the operation the anesthetist came up to me and apologized and said there was an extra cost that (for some reason) wasn't covered under my insurance.

Having heard all of the horror stories from the US I was quite worried until he eventually told me how much I had to pay extra - pretty sure it was £4.20. :-)

<comment><USER14> Amazing. That's less than the meal I just ate in the cafeteria at the hospital (Chicago suburbs) where I'm waiting for my daughter to be born; for her birth, I was told my cost will be somewhere between $3k-$7k, but I won't know until the hospital has settled up with our insurance company.

<comment><USER13> Well, that was a small additional charge. Not what the insurance cost - <USER3> I got through my previous job so not sure what it cost (NB I did pay tax on it, but wasn't a huge amount).

<comment><USER14> For a reference point, our health insurance costs $650/month. Wife is on a PPO plan, I'm on a high deductible plan (out of pocket for any costs until I've spent $6000 in a year).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> rob-olmos Oregon's Health CO-OP also recently went under. Basically they lost $18.4m in 2015, and were expecting to receive $5m from the federal risk adjustment program and instead owed $900k[1].

I received less than a week's notice that my insurance plan was ending despite them knowing for almost 2 weeks before notifying me.

1: [http://dfr.oregon.gov/public-resources/Pages/co-op- faqs.aspx](http://dfr.oregon.gov/public-resources/Pages/co-op-faqs.aspx)

<comment><USER15> Did you buy through ACA or get it through your employer?

At least they're letting the ACA insureds transfer their out-of-pocket amounts to another provider.

<comment> rob-olmos I bought it directly from Oregon's Health CO-OP because I figured it would be safer than going through any marketplace after the whole Oregon $300m fiasco. I don't qualify for any assistance.

Yea thankfully they are transferring those! Took them almost 3 weeks to do so for me; I'm glad I didn't have any major costs during that period.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I am an Oscar subscriber. I'd like to think I'm the ideal customer. I have autopay so they take my money each month. I am healthy and haven't used any benefit. Apparently I'm one of just 26k people in NJ to subscribe.

I honestly believe that at the end of the day nothing can be done about either Healthcare or higher education or anything like that without cutting costs. Anything we can do to reduce cost is potentially good. I want effective salary "cap" above which you'd pay 90% odd tax.

<comment><USER17> Yes, the first overhaul with gargantuan regulation change worked so well we should definitely do it again and this time add salary caps for the people removing my appendix: "You make too much money, now work on my body and don't accidently mess up please." And by yes I mean no.

We could do something that would actually work: Deregulate the industry, enhance legal protection for healthcare workers (to keep the lawyers from driving prices up again). Let health insurers decide rates and demographics they wish to cover. Legalize discounts for people with healthy habits, and penalties for those who don't have them. And instead of trying to tax the health insurance companies into covering people with expensive health conditions, we could actually fund medicare (instead of both Democrats and Republicans continuously slashing it's payments to healthcare workers). Competition for the "healthy" people would stabilize quickly and insurance companies would be forced to grow profits by creating plans individualised for not so healthy people. Really the only regulation needed would be ones around a couple of moral issues, maybe something like: no dropping people for health conditions that aren't preventable... or have different classes of insurance like the do in the auto industry.

One only has to look at how competitive the life insurance market to see this work in action right now. Even with someone that has COPD can get affordable life insurance with after a health screening.

<comment><USER18> So, in economics 101, the concept of insurance was clearly explained, and by basic definition, the more fractured the pool the worse the outcome.

I haven't really understood _why_ America finds that this law doesn't hold over its population. And I've also looked at outcomes and found that once you start looking at costs/bed and patient coverage, any other first world country with a working single payer system provides significantly better outcomes.

The things that America does better are things like cutting edge cancer care, or cutting edge X treatment, but these are accessible to the richest of the rich (and I've seen family members who can afford it vs family members who can't - we are talking 1% of a nation).

So why do things like "make plans for not so healthy people" come up as concepts.

The probability for a non healthy person to get sick is 1. At this point its like a scholarship to go to get medical care.

If I were a medicare company, I would instead keep shafting the healthy people, fight tooth and nail to keep that population, and call it a day. For the sick people - why bother? (1)

I really don't get America when it comes to this (and many other things, which you guys used to be world leaders in)

Why?

And edit: And to prevent (1), you would have to create regulation, something expressly disagreed with in the parent comment.

Matter of fact, when I have pursued this with others or read threads, people come up with _yet more complex_ market systems to deal with the skewed incentives, in order to avoid regulation.

<comment><USER19> > economics 101 ... the more fractured the pool the worse the outcome.

You're probably (I don't know) talking about large insurers being able to aggregate non-correlated risk into a nice non-risky positive expectation of profit.

But of course econ 101 loves nothing more than to look at the margin, and if the marginal client simply lowers expected profit, you better fracture him out. But you clearly know that, so what _are_ you talking about?

<comment><USER18> Right - and that's why insurance is discussed as the extra-ordinary case where the normal market rules result in worse outcomes.

More competition results in a worse functioning market. Therefore for ideal outcomes you don't create separate insurers, and no one moves out.

My question isn't on the economics, to be honest. My question is on the weird cultural idiosyncrasy. I don't really understand that (and by that I mean I understand its "political", but the math and success of it is pretty clear, so how is the topic successfully made confusing).

That's the real magic at play, and thats what I'd like insight about.

<comment><USER19> > My question isn't on the economics, to be honest

No, your question isn't, mine is. I still don't really know what "Econ 101" (i.e., basic) market failure you're talking about. Can you explain like I knew enough jargon to understand an Econ 101 explanation but slept through that one lesson?

Intrinsic economies of scale producing oligopolistic structures in insurance – I've seen that mentioned as a market failure, but it would be strange to fix a tendency towards oligopoly by legalizing it into a total monopoly, no? So you're not talking about that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Here in NYC, it seems Oscar has the best coverage out of all the obamacare plans.

With the others like Blue Cross, UHC compass, etc they never seem to cover all my doctors. Or they have a ridiculous clause where you need a referral from your family doctor to see a specialist.

</comment><comment><USER21> This doesn't seem so much an indictment of Oscar as the current healthcare system.</comment>


Spritz: Reading Reimagined - <AUTHOR> http://www.spritzinc.com/

<comment><USER2> I really like this idea. Not to sure on the science but it feels quite intuitive.</comment>


Vitality everywhere: the Gone List, Facebook's News Feed, and the rise of the feed. - <AUTHOR> http://laserlike.com/2008/06/10/vitality-everywhere-the-gone-list-facebooks-news-feed-and-the-rise-of-the-feed/ Facebook-like News Feed for everything else. <comment><USER2> I had a script like this at Google. Every day it would email me all the changes to the employee db. I could see who was quitting, getting hired, changing titles, etc. It was very interesting, though I eventually had to filter out the people that I didn't care about. Now I think there's a popular internal webapp that does something similar.</comment>


The Open Philanthropy Project AI Fellows Program - <AUTHOR> http://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/open-philanthropy-project-ai-fellows-program <comment><USER2> I love seeing stuff like this. Thanks to all of the people in the world who take the time to identify causes they care about, promising routes to work on them, and then take action on the promising routes.</comment>


West vs Asia education rankings are misleading - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21728985.800-west-vs-asia-education-rankings-are-misleading.html

<comment><AUTHOR> It would be interesting to see what tokenadult has to say about this. Myself, I do not know enough to form an opinion. One point of confusion I have is I do not think these comparisons can be meaningfully made due to certain dependencies. If the U.S. is leveraging its innovation momentum and absorbing the top Math people from the countries that score highest on Intl. Math Tests then one cannot properly state that those teaching methods are not important.

On the other hand; openess to dissent, open culture and ease of doing business can act as a positive attractor of creative talent, suggesting teaching prowess is meaningless beyond some threshold level. As such, optimizing on teaching instead of "cultural tolerance of dissent" may be missing the forest for the trees. Consider Signapore. It scores high in Education, GDP per capita, ecomony and business; it has a very low friction to business and top Math scores yet does not score so well in innovation. So maybe culture is key. Too much respect for seniors may deter trend bucking research programs.

Either way, as other countries develop noteworthy institutions, improve economies and lower barriers to business they will be better able to retain talent and perhaps we can fiinally factor out what variables are key.</comment>