120k-year-old footprints offer early evidence for humans in Arabia - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/these-120000-year-old-footprints-offer-early-evidence-humans-arabia <comment><USER2> Funny Saudi Arabia + fossil footprints story:

Back in the 90s I was in saudi arabia when a national geographic story came out about some fossil footprints. Because of the size/spacing of the prints it was evident that two proto-humans, one smaller, were walking together while perhaps holding hands. So the cover art was two hairy proto-humans, one male and one female, naked, walking hand in hand away from the viewer. Needless to say this was an issue for the saudi censors, who at that time would ink over magazine covers by hand.

By censoring anything you suggest that these are people, not animals, and thereby acknowledge evolution. Do you censor the female? The male? Both? On store shelves I saw every interpretation. My favorite was the one that ignored the nakedness, censored only the hand holding.

<comment><USER3> Man, it would be so bad if a western democracy had a similarly prudish censorship policy online, right? (Welcome to the UK in 2020, where by default I can't watch whatever I want and I don't think my ISP will let me download a VPN at all)

<comment><USER4> Calling it 'censorship' seems a bit inflated...you can request UK ISPs to remove the content filter. Further, the UK government retracted the internet 'porn' bill, which was a big driver of the act anyway.

I think it's a bit unfair to conflate 'always on' and 'default on, but easy to remove'.

edit: also, I'm in the UK, and happily using a VPN on Windows, Linux, and Android with no issues.

<comment><USER3> It might just be a virgin media thing but I cannot browse to any vpn sites but the filtering is done differently the porn filter i.e. it's by government request but not publicly enough to warrant a redirect to their site

<comment><USER5> Nobody else I know on Virgin Media is experiencing this. Is it possible you have some malware on your device/network?

<comment><USER6> I swapped to TalkTalk recently and have the same problem. All but the most obscure VPN sites are blocked. My guess is because using them is aginst TOS?

<comment><USER7> Have you checked that you've turned off any "parental controls". I believe by default, new connections come with a "family friendly" filter. And that includes VPN services, since (presumably by their logic) VPNs are the first thing a kid will download to get around this filter...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Expect to see more archaeology findings around the area of North or North West of Saudi Arabia. This area has been an archeology blindspots until 1980s [1].

Fun facts, the green pastures of Arabian Peninsula in ancient times has been mentioned in a well known authentic hadith (saying of Muhammad), "The Hour will not begin until the land of the Arabs once again becomes meadows and rivers"[2].

[1][http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3224/1/1.pdf](http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3224/1/1.pdf)

[2][https://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76](https://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76)

<comment><USER9> The evidence for multiple waves of human migration out of Africa is looking more and more likely.

It's been ignored primarily due to the political, philosophical, perhaps even meta philosophical reasons. As the implication is that significant genomic differences existed within and between the early human populations. And so whether all of them qualify as "human".

The same reason why it took so long for some people to have significant Neanderthal ancestry to become accepted fact. The average percentage of Neanderthal ancestry seems to increase as you move eastwards to East Asia.

<comment><USER10> This type of information is actively suppressed and speaking about is shamed

<comment><USER11> I've never heard about this being an problem. Can you point to some discussion of this topic?

<comment><USER10> Bring it up at work and see how well that goes. Also I can't really point to discussion on it, almost all of it is deleted on platforms like Reddit

<comment><USER12> I mean, seems like a weird thing to discuss at work? Also this feels like concern trolling. You can have whatever discussion you want about the potential for there having been multiple waves of human migration out of Africa. Do it respectfully and without weird racist undertones and things will work out fine.

<comment><USER13> It depends on the environment. We had two "social crisis" like this in my workplace. One was a triggered by an innocent remark about someone not seeing the wage gap between women and men in his personal circle and then mentioning there are too many variables to say a wage gap exist.

The person got massively and publicly shut down by leaders in the company who wrote lengthy messages about it and explained holding this belief wasn't acceptable in this company and rationalised the reaction with other leaders saying it was a way to send a message. They didn't manage to get the guy fired (but they tried!) and he left after a few months of radio silence.

Sure thing, nobody else dared to say something about it but the victim got messages of support by tons of people afraid to speak up.

My opinion is that, given it's a company's private space, the company could limit freedom of speech and ban public political discussion to avoid this scenario - still, seeing people trying to force their dogma on other people was shocking.

<comment><USER14> Think as you like, but behave like others.

[https://medium.com/@alexanderemmanual/law-38-think-as-you- li...](https://medium.com/@alexanderemmanual/law-38-think-as-you-like-but- behave-like-others-8ff0fd646406)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's a bit mindblowing to consider that the imprinted weight of a human through the form of a foot survives one hundred twenty thousand years. Thousands of generations of human life passed, and this remarkably small piece of evidence remained locked in time, waiting to be discovered by future scientists.

Alright I need to slow down on the coffee this morning.

<comment><USER2> >> one hundred twenty thousand years. Thousands of generations of human life

That's nothing. There are plenty of fossil dinosaur footprints aged many _millions_ of years.

<comment><USER16> For what it's worth, fossilized "footprints" go way back to the appearance of multicellular organisms, the Ediacaran Period 600Mya: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran_biota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ediacaran_biota)

<comment><USER17> The article show the picture of a fossilized footprint. Could that have been one of our ancestors or a relative?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Fascinating find, but as the article implies, the climate/landscape of the Arabian Peninsula was very wet then, and what we call the Red Sea today was at time likely an estuary, so hardly a barrier.

So what we call Arabia and Africa weren't distinct land masses, and if anything it would be surprising if they were not inhabited by hominids similar to those nearby in today's Africa.

<comment><USER19> > what we call the Red Sea today was at time likely an estuary

The Red Sea Rift is quite recent [1] in geological time but not 120 kya recent.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea_Rift#Spreading_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea_Rift#Spreading_model)

<comment><USER18> The phenomenon that would have made it an estuary on the hominid and homo sapiens timescale is lower sea levels due to ice ages.

40% of the Red Sea is only 100 m deep, and during the last major ice age 20kya sea levels were 120 m lower than they are today.

[https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-9...](https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-90-481-2639-2_129#:~:text=The%20Red%20Sea%20proper%20is,is%20shallower%20than%20100%20m).

<comment><USER19> Marine Isotope Stage 5 [1] was a high sea level interglacial:

> Thus, the present interglacial, the Holocene, is compared with MIS 5 or the > interglacials of Marine Isotope Stage 11.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Isotope_Stage_5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Isotope_Stage_5)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Very cool.

This tracks pretty well with the earliest times talked about now for people in Australia. Somewhere in that ballpark people needed to be walking out of Africa so they could end up in Australia.

<comment><USER21> Yep. There most likely were multiple waves of emigration from Africa. It's just that the most recent one is the one that made the largest impression in the gene pool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The paper _Human footprints provide snapshot of last interglacial ecology in the Arabian interior_ [1]:

> Diatom paleoecology and sedimentary analysis indicate that Alathar was an > oligotrophic (nutrient-poor) and shallow freshwater lake for the majority of > its existence. This is consistent with similar-aged nearby freshwater > paleolake deposits situated in the southern reaches of a "freshwater > corridor" that connected the Arabian interior to the Levant and northeast > Africa at times during marine isotope stage 5 (MIS 5; ~130 to 80 ka)

> The lake surface is heavily trampled, which probably reflects a dry season > during which herbivores congregate around diminishing water supplies, and is > consistent with sedimentary evidence for the drying up of the lake at that > time. A total of 376 footprints were recorded, of which 177 could be either > confidently or provisionally referred to an ichnotaxon. Seven hominin > footprints were confidently identified... we argue that H. sapiens was > responsible for the tracks at Alathar.

> Given their similar orientation, distances from one another, and differences > in size, they are interpreted as two, or up to three, individuals traveling > in concert.

> Elephants, in particular, suggest the regional presence of freshwater > sources and substantial plant biomass, while the size of the tracks is > suggestive of a species larger than any extant taxon.

> Some of the ungulate prints are consistent in shape and size with a giant > buffalo, possibly Syncerus, a taxon previously identified at nearby MIS 5 > sites.

The research paints a wonderful picture of this "freshwater corridor" during the MIS 5 interglacial. The question I have is what caused the ecology to dry out in our own interglacial? Did the Great Rift change enough in 100 kyr to impact the local climate this much?

[1] [https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/38/eaba8940](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/38/eaba8940)

</comment><comment><USER22> This sounds very cool, but how do they know that they are actual footprints and not just two holes that accidentally looks like footprints?

<comment><USER23> [https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/38/eaba8940](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/38/eaba8940)

Seven, actually. They found hundreds of footprints of various animals, about half of which were too questionable to identify.

Footprints are often identified because they get filled in with a different material than the substrate. One on its own might not be enough for a positive ID, but this is way bigger than "two holes"

<comment><USER24> I agree.

I don't know why the press article choose the first image of Figure 4, the second image is much more convincing. (You can see clearly the toes, except the middle one.)

Also, in the bottom center of Figure 1 you it is possible to see that they found 4 footprints in a row, and if you imagine that there are one or two missing footprints they are at the correct distance, like the path of someone waking. (Why there are only right footprints and no left footprints?)

<comment><USER23> > Why there are only right footprints and no left footprints?

Pure speculation here (plus some experience/training in tracking), but if somebody is walking along a shore with one foot in mud, and the other foot in dirt, they only leave deep impressions on one side. Similarly, if they're walking with one foot in shallow water, and one foot in mud, then one side will erode much faster than the other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I mean, we've known of early humans in Arabia for quite a while now.

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

</comment><comment><USER26> Just as likely, it could be evidence that humans gain the ability to time travel in the future and decide to go 120k years into the past.</comment>


The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? - <AUTHOR> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

<comment><USER3> This article is ludicrously short on technical details -- anyone have more?

<comment><USER4> The system uses natural gas to generate electricity locally. They say it's up to 85% efficient if you also use the heat it generates to heat your home. Modern large scale natural gas-powered plants seems to be about 60% efficient according to my quick Google searches.

If this thing is cheap enough it could be worthwhile, but only in cold climates where you can use the generated heat.

<comment><USER5> A more efficient natural gas generator is fine, but not exactly "green" compared to wind, solar, thermal, hydro, nuclear or other carbon neutral tech. Does this device include carbon capture, or does it just spew CO2?

<comment><USER6> The Bloom energy cell supposedly works without combustion. So no CO/CO2 etc. But there have to be some byproducts somewhere.

<comment><USER7> Combustion has nothing to do with it. If it's a natural gas fuel cell then it's reacting mainly CH4 and O2 to produce mostly H2O and CO2, plus electricity and heat. [http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/technology.asp#fuelcel...](http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/technology.asp#fuelcells)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Their web site has a 2-day countdown timer, by the way: <http://www.bloomenergy.com/>

</comment><comment><USER9> It would seem that there is a bit to much hype around the product. Perhaps as more information comes out, the more 'out there' claims will gain credulity.

The real power of this discovery is going to be the ideas and patent behind it.

Since the dawn of the industrial age we have depended on some form of combustion/heat generation to produce steam thus turning turbines and creating electricity. This technology might be the first real step in generating electricity cheaply and efficiently through more elegant processes.

This may be the first iteration of changing the way humans gather electricity.

</comment><comment><USER10> I highly recommend watching the video.

I'm a skeptic, but this is exciting. No emissions from the power generation itself; they have large customers already (Google, eBay, Wal-Mart, Staples).

<comment><USER11> If you got "no emissions from the power generation itself" from the video then you're not skeptic enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> There certainly aren't enough detail to call bullshit with true certainty, but this does exhibit several classic warning sign. Specifically the level of secrecy around the technical details.

On the whole this seems to be some sort of non-combustion natural-gas-based fuel cell. Well... Could work. They tend to hand-wave a lot of details in these broadcasts, so they may just not have mentioned certain aspects.

Would I get even a little bit excited before more proof emerges? Not an iota.

<comment><USER13> A bit further into the video, it says WalMart, eBay, Google, etc. all have these boxes installed. I'd be surprised if he's able to trick all of these companies into buying some fake technology.

<comment><USER12> I saw that. That's the one detail that makes me not dismiss it out of hand.

I don't know what went into making those deals, but it is rather unlikely (though most certainly not impossible) that he was able to dupe all of them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Technology that takes oxygen and fossil fuels in, and out comes oxygen - <USER2> NO emissions?

Bullshit. Matter doesn't just disappear; something else has to come out.

<comment><USER15> I think you are not listening carefully. 60 minutes said that "no emissions" was the holy grail, NOT that Bloom Energy achieved zero emissions. In fact, Bloom themselves talk about greenhouse emissions in their materials. 60 minutes is just playing the typical bait and switch game.

So, calm down a bit, dude.

<comment><USER14> I am calm; check <http://twitter.com/chebuctonian/status/9461662523>

Bloom are carefully dancing around the questions, saying some outrageous things like "it can use solar". Had I spent hundreds of millions on this, I would want to make it look green too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> he invented a new kind of fuel cell but no papers have been published. i call BS. the fact that its marketed as "green" typically means it costs much more than current solutions but "people should be happy to pay because its good for the environment."

<comment><USER17> I agree with you, even though your shift key is broken. I don't think it's useful to discuss new green technology without mentioning the cost. If we ignore cost, the energy problem has been totally solved for decades.

<comment><USER18> Borked Shift key or laziness? Where are the double-quotes coming from? ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I was hoping this would be about Bloom filters.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just saw the broadcast; it doesn't seem the video is up yet.</comment>


Uber CLI - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jaebradley/uber-cli <comment><USER2> If you're going to draw lines with characters, use the line drawing characters. We have Unicode now.

I have a program which takes text files with ASCII line art and automatically turns them into text files with UNICODE line art.[1] I wrote this for some very old documents, but it's still useful.

         ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
         ┃          Source Port          ┃       Destination Port        ┃
         ┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
         ┃                        Sequence Number                        ┃
         ┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
         ┃                    Acknowledgment Number                      ┃
         ┣━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━┳━┳━┳━┳━┳━┳━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
         ┃  Data ┃           ┃U┃A┃P┃R┃S┃F┃                               ┃
         ┃ Offset┃ Reserved  ┃R┃C┃S┃S┃Y┃I┃            Window             ┃
         ┃       ┃           ┃G┃K┃H┃T┃N┃N┃                               ┃
         ┣━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━┻━┻━┻━┻━┻━┻━╋━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
         ┃           Checksum            ┃         Urgent Pointer        ┃
         ┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
         ┃                    Options                    ┃    Padding    ┃
         ┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┻━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
         ┃                             data                              ┃
         ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

[1] [https://github.com/John- Nagle/pasv/blob/master/src/Util/picf...](https://github.com/John- Nagle/pasv/blob/master/src/Util/picfix.py)

<comment><USER3> _We have Unicode now._

Not everyone and not everywhere, and depending on the font, the line-drawing characters may not be the same width as the others even if it's a monospace font (e.g. see [https://blog.helftone.com/ascii-art- unicode/](https://blog.helftone.com/ascii-art-unicode/) ). The whole point of text files in things like RFCs is to be as portable as possible, and using Unicode somewhat defeats that point.

<comment><USER2> That's a problem. The above example looks good in a Ubuntu terminal window and in Firefox, but misaligned in the "gedit" text editor. In the SciTE editor, the line drawing characters show as four hex values in a box. groff, even with the "preconv" preprocessor for Unicode, can't display them either.

The box drawing characters aren't even in the astral planes. They're in plane 0 in the 0x2xxx range. So even old 16-bit Unicode implementations should support them.

(The TCP header from an RFC was just an example. I'm converting some old troff documents to PDF, and they have lots of box drawings.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> That argument to UberClient() looks like an API token. Did you mean to leave it in there for the world to use?

[https://github.com/jaebradley/uber- cli/blob/master/src/servi...](https://github.com/jaebradley/uber- cli/blob/master/src/services/UberService.js#L14)

<comment><USER5> Hey, I'm the author (thanks @zoodle for notifying me).

Obviously, this is a security issue that is pretty much bottom-of-the-barrel- shitty.

My explanation is that I didn't feel like standing up a middleware service to direct traffic through in order to obfuscate the server token. Especially for a tool that I anticipated being used by pretty much only me.

Not a satisfying answer, but thanks for exposing this security flaw - definitely going to add it to my project task queue.

<comment><USER6> There's no need for a middleware service. Just store it outside of the repo.

<comment><USER5> It's an NPM package that people download - how would you store it outside the repo such that people that download the package can reference the token? Can't really use an environment variable at that point, right? There probably has to be some HTTP request to some service that ends up forwarding the request to Uber with the token. Maybe I'm over-thinking this...

<comment><USER7> I think the idea is that you implement some interface for interested users to supply their own API keys.

<comment><USER5> Gotcha - ok, that certainly makes sense. Though makes for a slightly less friendly (but certainly more secure) service.

<comment><USER8> A friend of mine accidentally pushed his Heroku or New Relic API key to a toy repo which was public and that information was immediately scraped and used. He was billed a non trivial about which he disputed but cost some time and headache.

Enforce best practices and don't do that even if it's for something trivial and won't have real world consequences.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Do tell me, why are you still using Uber? What needs to happen? Let's see: Weakening the rule of law by deliberately ignoring taxi legislation, that's not enough. Rebuilding indentured servitude via subprime mortgaged cars where the payment comes out of the drivers' wages, that's not enough. Launching self driving cars going again against regulations and putting cyclists in deadly danger, that's not enough. Treating women like shit, that's not enough. Stealing Google tech brazenly, that's not enough.

Tell me, what would be enough?

Sources for subprime loans: [http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady- partners-are-...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-and-its-shady-partners-are- pushing-drivers-into-su-1649936785) [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-31/inside- ub...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-31/inside-uber-s-auto- lease-machine-where-almost-anyone-can-get-a-car) [https://twitter.com/shashashasha/status/688734478181732352](https://twitter.com/shashashasha/status/688734478181732352) Self driving shit: [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/19/uber- self...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/19/uber-self-driving- cars-bike-lanes-safety-san-francisco) the rest is either obvious or recent enough not to need a source.

<comment><USER10> You could make the case that, since they have a -140% profit margin, the best way to hurt them is to use them all the time ^_^ Every $1.00 you give them costs them $2.40, every dollar you don't give them costs them nothing.

<comment><USER9> As long as investors see people using them, there'll be money. Stay away.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Using this, a command that will get your public IP, geo locate it, and then get an uber pickup time for those coordinates.

dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com | xargs -I {} echo "ipinfo.io/"{} | xargs curl | grep loc | cut -d: -f2 | sed "s/,$//" | xargs uber time

<comment><USER12> Nice ipinfo.io mashup! This whole part

        dig +short myip.opendns.com @resolver1.opendns.com | xargs -I {} echo "ipinfo.io/"{} | xargs curl | grep loc | cut -d: -f2 | sed "s/,$//"

can be simplified to

        curl ipinfo.io/loc

which gives you exactly the same information, per [https://ipinfo.io/developers](https://ipinfo.io/developers)

But ip geolocation usually gives you city or zipcode level accuracy, which may or may not be good enough to get an accurate uber estimate depending on how big your city/zip area is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I thought everyone already deleted that app...

<comment><USER14> Everyone deleted the app, so we have to use the CLI now!

<comment><USER15> made my day

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'd be more interested in this except for Lyft instead of uber.

Like many others, I'm done with the tire fire that is uber.

<comment><USER17> And what if you fly somewhere outside the US ? still no Uber ?

<comment><USER18> Use a taxi.

<comment><USER19> In the UK that would be doubling the cost and receiving a much worse service.

Tech workers may be uninstalling Uber in protest in the valley but non-tech people do not know that there is even an issue/scandal.

When I am sharing a ride with friends in London I'm not going to say: "No, I can't share the fare because I uninstalled Uber".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there a way for this to grab your current location, so you don't have to type your address?

</comment><comment><USER21> Google maps makes it easy to see the estimated prices of Uber and other services.

<comment><USER22> The goal of this project is to be able to check it from the command line. So while you're at the computer, you can check it via CLI rather than opening a browser.

I think the authors intent was just for his own use and some fun.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Great, just another thing I need to delete

<comment><USER24> Well it's on npm so the Author will delete it once you become dependent on it.</comment></comment>


Adobe Gaming: Better games. More easily.  - <AUTHOR> http://gaming.adobe.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad to see some clear and focused messaging from Adobe!</comment>


Biggie-router: A Node.js high performance router inspired by JQuery and Sinitra. - Tim-Smart http://github.com/biggie/biggie-router "Biggie-router is a high performance, extendable router for use in frameworks and applications. It draws inspiration from several popular open source frameworks and libraries, such as jQuery and Sinitra."<p>Enjoy :) <comment> Tim-Smart Feel free to ask questions! I'm also available on the #node.js channel on Freenode as Tim_Smart.</comment>


Ask HN: How can I learn math? - <AUTHOR> So this is embarassing: I work in HCI, and I know next to nothing about math.
When I was younger, I had a lot of problems. Ended up in a reform school, and they weren't very focused on education.
Fast forward ten years. I've done a lot of self learning... mostly statistics, but there are huge gaps in my knowledge.
Too often in my career, I've decided on a project or course of study based on my math skills rather than my passions.
The problem is, I don't even know where or how to begin. I don't know what I don't know. And whenever I try to look up a specific concept (say, the Wikipedia page on Calculus) there's so much more that I don't know that the gulf of execution is so great I end up just giving up.
Does anyone know of a good online resource to sort of start at the beginning and work my way up?
(For example, I used to also hate learning foreign languages, but discovered Duolingo and have been working on learning German every since. And it's actually kind of fun!) <comment><USER2> What level of maths are you exactly looking at?

Khan Academy ([https://www.khanacademy.org/](https://www.khanacademy.org/)) has great resources for all levels of maths up until the first year of university - easily the friendliest and most comprehensive set of classes and topics for maths until that level

MIT Open Courseware ([http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by- topic/#cat=mathematics](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/find-by- topic/#cat=mathematics)) has many courses that you can pick from and start to learn from. For these it doesn't hurt to see what textbooks they're using (if any) and purchasing them and going through the problem sets yourself.

The great thing about maths, is that until you get to the very high levels, many problems can be checked against pre-made answers.

Hope this helps!

<comment><USER3> > The great thing about maths, is that until you get to the very high levels, > many problems can be checked against pre-made answers.

To add to this, wolframalpha has proven to be a huge help to me. It has solved every problem I've fed it so far, the pro version even shows you the intermediate steps.

<comment><USER4> Will second the pro version thought - IIRC, the app is like 2.99, but a bargain at that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We kind of don't know enough about where you are to be able to help you. I homeschooled my gifted-learning disabled sons and I strongly disagree with some of the things suggested here.

You can look up "The Cartoon Guides..." For example, they do have a "Cartoon Guide to Statistics." I used to own it. I can tell you that the first chapter or two covers what my college intro to statistics covered. I was inducted into Mu Alpha Theta, a math honor society, when I was 16 and I tutored math. I am good at explaining it and have a bit of a background, though I am a math slacker for HN. So, you know, we need more context to figure out what "beginning" you are looking for.

I will also say that I was in my thirties before I understood that the formulas I memorized my way through in high school had actual real world applications and so on. I was clear my oldest son could not just memorize his way through formulas. People who _can_ do that are inclined to be math majors. People who _cannot_ probably should not take much advice on learning math from math majors (I mean, unless they are experienced teachers as well who know how to reach folks who aren't so good at math -- Colin Wright's juggling video is very approachable, but many math majors seriously suck at explaining math to people who aren't also just inherently good at math). They are two different kinds of minds.

Best of luck.

</comment><comment><USER6> Buy those: [http://gcpm.rutgers.edu/books.html](http://gcpm.rutgers.edu/books.html)

and this: [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0486409163/?tag=stackoverfl08-20](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0486409163/?tag=stackoverfl08-20)

<comment><USER7> Unable to open the amazon link, could you please repost or mention the name of the book ?

<comment><USER6> Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning (Dover Books on Mathematics)

Also, you might want to get Richard Courant's "What is mathematics?" and a book (I'm reading multiple as I'm in your same spot, didn't have much mathematics during high-school because I thought I didn't possess the acumen, then I realized I really liked the subject) on proofs.

Gelfand's books are very very very good, trust me on this one, they build on the fundamentals. The books are not short of flaws though, namely the writing is informal, the author assumes some preexisting knowledge (that's why they are often not used as class books but as supplementary notes) and do not offer many exercises. But if you get the whole bunch you'll have covered the high- school curriculum (and more). The AMA olympiad books are good reads, same with those "Art of Problem Solving" books. But personally, I'm not starting these until I've gained enough confidence, I still can't solve elaborate problems or mathematical olympiad kind of questions (but I'm getting smarter).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ok, everybody is recommending different content sites, so you've got places to go to find specifics. That's good. But you also need a way to figure out what you already know, what you want to know, and which order is best to learn stuff in so you're not confused. For instance, you'd better have a decent understanding of trigonometry, geometry, and pre-calculus before you try tackling calculus. The hardest part about self-learning isn't trying to find tutorials for what you want to learn, it's figuring out how the specific topic you're working on can be contextualized in terms of other topics in the same subject area.

To figure that out, the most helpful thing I've found is looking at example 4-year plans at colleges (and, if they're available, even for some high schools when it comes to the fundamentals of a subject I never took), and, for online any given online course, seeing if there are any recommended prerequisites or co-requisites.

As an afterthought to all that, my favorite tutorial sites are like, HyperPhysics for physics, MIT open courseware for CS topics, HowStuffWorks for general tech-y knowledge (say, if I wanted to learn how a capacitor or a web server worked). If I'm going to google for good tutorials, I usually include something like "tutorial", "introduction", "primer", "layman's guide", or "cheat sheet". I find that even if I'm looking for an in-depth learning experience, the tutorials that are written to be simple will do the best job of emphasizing what's important, and laying out the way that somebody who "knows how to do it" will approach a problem.

<comment><USER4> OH I ALMOST FORGOT - Paul's Online Math Notes!!! That site got me through high school maths!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Go to the dead paper store and buy the textbook for the grade level you want to start with. This way you get a complete, comprehensive guide with table of contents that you can work through. Read, and do the sample questions.

When finished, buy the next grade ups textbook.

Learning math needs paper, it just does, don't try to do it online, it'll take twice as long and you'll learn half as much.

Be active not passive. Always learn with scribble paper ready.

</comment><comment><USER9> I have a degree in Computer Science, but I am terrible with Maths. It's surprising how far someone can go without ever doing calculus if they're able to fit enough answers in their head.

Despite already having my degree, I've felt for a long time that I've wanted to REALLY learn this stuff, at least to a point where I can read through Introduction to Algorithms and "get it".

My base level of knowledge is probably the start of Algebra 1, so I've been going through Khan Academy to build myself up. I'm halfway through Algebra 1 and I've already come across a ton of stuff that I barely ever covered in my GCSE's. I can't vouch for Khan Academy enough. It's been a far better teacher for me than any I've had.

I've given myself around two years to complete the following in my own time:

* Algebra 1 and 2

* Calculus

* A read through of Knuth's Concrete Mathematics

* A read through of Introduction to Algorithms and TAOCP.

I'm part-way through the first one, and I'm hoping that if I stay consistent (an hour of Khan Academy a day, and maybe a bit more on the weekends) I'll be able to work my way through this list.

</comment><comment><USER10> Nothing to be embarrassed about. I graduated and I'm still working on my Maths and Physics daily. I have a folder in my computer named "Core Knowledge" because I noticed that whenever I struggled with a topic, it wasn't really the topic I was struggling with, it was my core knowledge that was weak. I'm strengthening the core so that I'll only have to deal with the topics.

The best and worst thing today is that you have a huge number of resources. So much that you can either learn it all, or none. Most will go with none.

Everyone will recommend their favorite books. I'll do the same:

\- Piskunov's "Differential and Integral Calculus".

\- Demidovich's "Problems in Mathematical Analysis".

Piskunov for a course (concept, example. concept, example) and exercises. Demidovich for a quick review and about 3000 exercises.

I personally prefer the Soviet style for Maths and Physics. They're sharp, read your mind, and are ADHD free.

</comment><comment><USER11> Have you mastered algebra and trig? If not, do it. Khan Academy is great for this. Watch the videos and do lots and lots of problems. In learning math, there is no substitute for working through lots of problems.

After this, I suggest learning some discrete math and proof techniques. The book How To Prove It is great. It will teach you logic, set theory, how to write proofs, and how to invent proofs. Learning this first will help you actually understand calculus when you study it next.

For calculus, MIT's OCW course is really good. Pick up a standard book like Stewart, do a lot of problems, and try to understand the proofs of all the theorems. Or if you'd really like a challenge and some more theory, pick up Spivak's book.

</comment><comment><USER12> I hated math before and I thought I was gonna hate it in my whole life. Not until I had to study GMAT and it changed my life forever. I watched the GMAT problem solving explanation on Khan Academy. I think it was pretty simple math and fun to learn. easy to understand for math haters. It was pretty awesome. To me, math is the new door to the new world. I started reading books about math and related field like Physics. (Thinking in numbers by Denial Tammet, How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg. Cosmic Numbers: The Numbers That Define Our Universe by James D. Stein, Richard Feynman and etc. I think you get this, stay curious, stay open to learn. Hope this help and good luck! :)

</comment><comment><USER13> I can relate to the same problem and often I am stuck when reading about algorithms explained through math formulas. I would love to see some kind of dependency tree for math knowledge which clearly shows all the requisites for understanding a specific topic. Maybe it is a nice problem to solve for empathic math freak enterpreneurs which can come up with new, structured teaching methods.

</comment><comment><USER14> I would recommend starting with a calculus book. If you aren't comfortable enough with the trig side of things, do a refresher on OCW or Khan Academy.

This book is my personal favorite.

[http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Practical-Man-J- Thompson/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Practical-Man-J- Thompson/dp/1443728837)

</comment><comment><USER15> There are great courses on [http://www.coursera.org](http://www.coursera.org) and [http://www.edx.org](http://www.edx.org)

I like Mooculus, developed at Ohio State [http://mooculus.osu.edu](http://mooculus.osu.edu)

</comment><comment><USER16> To help build your intuition when learning math you might find these articles helpful [1] as supplemental material.

[1] [http://betterexplained.com/articles/category/math/](http://betterexplained.com/articles/category/math/)

</comment><comment><USER17> I would highly recommend the book _1089 and All That_. It won't teach you much math, but it is an excellent book to read while getting started. _Measurement_ is also a good book that starts from scratch.

</comment><comment><USER18> Khan Academy is great. I wish they had some kind of placement thing to evaluate your skill in different areas of math, but you can always just start with something you recognize and work your way up from there.

</comment><comment><USER19> Start here: [http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html](http://us.metamath.org/mpegif/mmset.html)

</comment><comment><USER20> Do not get discouraged. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia! Math education is not the goal of an encyclopedia. Other sources in this thread will help.

</comment><comment><USER21> [https://brilliant.org](https://brilliant.org) is another good source.

</comment><comment><USER22> A book called Mathematicians Delight will be very helpful. Easy readying. A classic.

</comment><comment><USER23> Applied math major here. I strongly recommend you don't use websites to teach yourself math, with the possible exception of Khan Academy or OCW. Most websites or YouTube are only good if you already somewhat know the math topic, and you just want a different way of explaining it to help reinforce the topic. Most websites feel like tutoring: only good for helping as a secondary source. Wikipedia is completely useless for me unless I already know the topic, in which case it is a decent reference. I've tried to teach myself math using online resources, and failed. (Note that I have taught myself C, C++, C#, Java, and Python using online resources, and I know how to use Google, but math is a lot more formal.)

I recommend you get a proper book, which is going to be more complete, will start at the basics, and then build on itself. Anyways, I recommend you learn algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus, in that order. You'll also want to learn linear algebra, but you should be able to understand it after basic algebra. I can't recommend a book for algebra or trig, since I took them so long ago. Calculus by Stewart is a popular text book, is accessible, covers the complete basics, and has old editions cheaply available. (I bought mine for $5. Older editions of textbooks are dirt cheap, and have almost the same content as newer editions.) Plenty of people don't like it, and there might be better calculus text books, so I'm not saying it's the best. Strang has written several books on linear algebra, they are well written, but not necessarily thorough. Once you have a textbook on the topic you're interested in, use it to accompany Khan Academy. Math builds on itself, so you'll constantly be referring to previous stuff that you learned, and this is significantly easier with a text book. Mark it up, highlight every definition and theorem in it, and never through it away. Check out your local library, and see what books work for you, then buy them. If you have a college/university near by, their library will have the books that their math department uses. Note that they might not be on the shelves, you'll have to ask the front desk for it, and you can only borrow it for several hours.

Once you have a decent understanding of calculus, read a proper book on math thought/proof writing. The class I took on this changed my life. All upper level math books are extremely structured, and this will teach you how it is done, as well as how to structure a proof, and set notation. I read Mathematical Proofs by Chartrand, but there are others. Once you have done this, you can easily teach yourself any math topic and have the ability to understand any math paper. You can now learn real analysis and/or abstract algebra (I recommend Pinter for abstract algebra).

TLDR; Learn math from proper text books, use online resources to help you get through them. Learn algebra, geometry, trig, calculus in that order.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'll be a third person to recommend Khan Academy.

</comment><comment><USER25> Don't listen to anyone here that even mentions Khan Academy. It's good if you don't mind wasting a lot of time (I'm assuming you're a remedial learner).

You need two components to properly learning math: a) theory b) practice

# THEORY

Sequence: 1) Algebra 2) Geometry 3) Trigonometry 4) Calculus (single, multivar calculus)

Here's links for (1)––(3) [http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/](http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/) [http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/index-2.html](http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/index-2.html) [http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/](http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/) [http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trigonometry.html](http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/trigonometry.html)

For calculus, I don't know anymore productive way than taking classes at a local Junior College. You need to place into these classes since you haven't taken math classes in a few years. Try to place into a compact summer class. My local college lets me place into Calc 1 & 2 (Honors) as the highest class to place into.

The website (mathisfun) is a great resource. It looks really kiddy, but concept are explained properly. If you can get over the visual aesthetic, you can relearn mathematical ideas quickly.

# PRACTICE

Buy a book. Preferably a book that has a boat load of problems for you to run through.

Build confidence through exercises.</comment>


"j" for switching directories - hacking "cd" with python - <AUTHOR> http://charlesleifer.com/blog/-j-for-switching-directories---improving-the-cd-command-/ <comment><USER2> Also see fasd: Its the best one out there.

<https://github.com/clvv/fasd>

\+ Fasd (pronounced similar to "fast") is a command-line productivity booster.

\+ Fasd offers quick access to files and directories for POSIX shells. It is inspired by tools like autojump, z and v.

\+ Fasd keeps track of files and directories you have accessed, so that you can quickly reference them in the command line.

I've been using this tool, nothing comes close this one. Trust me on this. :)

<comment><USER3> What is better about it? Why should I trust you on this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I already use this all the time for the past few years with the exact same command "j": <https://github.com/joelthelion/autojump>

<comment><USER5> i love this little app. So useful.

<comment><USER6> thanks :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For a simpler worflow than "j" one can use pushd/popd which are builtin in bash. One can push and pop directories one a stack. It's pretty neat!

$ cd foo1

$ pushd ~/foo2

[do some work]

$ pushd ~/foo3

[do some work]

$ popd

$ pwd

~/foo2

$ popd

$ pwd

~/foo1

<comment><USER8> You can also:

      $ cd -

to jump to the last directory, like popd without the pushd.

I also alias .. to 'cd ..' and ... to 'cd ../..' (and so on).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> A great tool with no dependencies other than the shell already exists:

<https://github.com/rupa/z>

<comment><USER10> Those on Windows, see <https://github.com/manojlds/posz>

Also, an implementation of CDPATH - <https://github.com/manojlds/cdposh>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I tried a similar thing to replicate Eclipse's 'Open Resource' search functionality while I was coding in Vim.

<https://github.com/hollingsworthd/POSIXplorer>

You basically enter a search term or regex and it will search recursively down from your current directory to find the file. If >1 results are found it displays a navigable list of files to open, otherwise it immediately loads the file in your $EDITOR (or defaults to vim).

It also can search file contents in addition to a path regex, with all the same functionality to browse and open files.

OP's script looks neat. I think there are all sorts of things we could do to improve cmdline usability.

</comment><comment><USER12> I've been burned by these kind of tools before, when I started using the CDPATH variable, as supported by bash.

Imagine the situation where you have a bunch of domains stored beneath /home/www. For example "/home/www/example.com" and "/home/www/example.org". (This is common for vhosts with a single prefix).

I decided I was going to get rid of the archived copies beneath /var/backup - so I decide to run "cd /var/backup; cd example.com; rm -rf *". Because of the path-searching I ended up at my live location, not my (obsolete) backup.

Since then I've always decided to navigate manually.

</comment><comment><USER13> Shameless plug: I wrote a similar utility for myself called 'Goto Bookmark' which allows you to bookmark a directory so you can jump to it from anywhere when needed.

Bitbucket: <https://bitbucket.org/amarsahinovic/gb>

Github mirror: <https://github.com/amarsahinovic/gb>

</comment><comment><USER14> I made a similar tool: <https://github.com/JesseAldridge/simplejump>

One nice feature is you can jump to the nth matching result like so:

        $ z d
        $ pwd
        /Users/jessealdridge/Desktop
        $ z d 2
        $ pwd
        /Users/jessealdridge/Dropbox

</comment><comment><USER15> I find these very useful: [https://github.com/nviennot/zsh- config/blob/master/lib/key-b...](https://github.com/nviennot/zsh- config/blob/master/lib/key-bindings.zsh#L7-L12)

ctrl+f is similar to "forward" in your browser. ctrl+b is similar to "back" in your browser.

</comment><comment><USER16> A very, very simple cd "hack" I use is (put this in your .bashrc):

function cd() { builtin cd "$*" && ls }

it automatically runs "ls" every time you cd somewhere. I find when I'm using someone elses box or SSH'd in somewhere it's really annoying not to have it.

</comment><comment><USER17> Also bash has a built-in incremental history search.

[http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Searchi...](http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html#Searching)

</comment><comment><USER18> While we're talking about "smart cd" tools, I should mention my Windows PowerShell tool.

<https://github.com/tkellogg/Jump-Location>

</comment><comment><USER19> It seems there are many derivatives. Here's one I use and like: <https://github.com/meonkeys/j2> .

</comment><comment><USER20> You can also just set the $CDPATH: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4466687>

</comment><comment><USER21> You can also check your most used commands with huffshell (gem install huffshell), it also suggests you some aliases.

</comment><comment><USER22> so autojump, z and fasd - which one is better and why?

<comment><USER23> `z` is good. `autojmp` is similar. Also try `cetus` ( `gem install cetus`) and `zfm` (written in zsh, <https://github.com/rkumar/zfm>).</comment></comment>


Why Software Engineering Isn't Engineering - <AUTHOR> http://blog.iancackett.com/2015/06/07/software-engineering/

<comment><USER2> * but it should be

instead of arguing to stop custom solution and start building software and infrastructure as interchangeable parts, the article jumps to the very opposite conclusion

meanwhile, software as engineering actually exists and fly planes and bring spaceships to mun and beyond

the sad truth is that the customer often wants an engineered system but pretends it from college students paid in food stamps - well, you get what you pay for.

imho the first company that comes with an ikea model to the world of software - rugged, good enough, cheap - will dominate the next half century.

we're, at best, artisans and craftsman of software, but lets not pretend that's the trend. race to bottom will drive toward the win of mass engineering; we are actually already looking at this trend like now, where it is more and more reasonable to build an application out of existing services than rolling your own.

Just a decade ago would have been impossible in a year to bring about the same amount of feature today you can get for 9.99 off the shelf with the likes of intercom, keen.io, reveal.js, chargebee etc.

Software engineering is unfit for custom software development; that I concede; but it is just bound to happen as economy to scales drive do-or-buy decision toward microservices.

<comment><USER3> It's quite common for other kinds of engineers to design custom solutions. For example I have seen with my own eyes, motorized stripper pastie tassels. They were designed by an engineering firm.

My gripe about software engineering is that anyone may call themselves a software engineer, even if they have no clue about engineering.

In the US, Civil Engineers require a Professional Engineer's license because an incompetently designed gas pipe took the lives of three hundred when it exploded.

In Canada, one must be a Professional Engineer to claim you are an engineer of any sort. Just having a computer science degree does not count, you need a software engineering degree and that is quite a different thing.

The Ontario Society of Engineers always wins its lawsuits against MCSEs and the "schools" that "train" them.

This because a truss bridge collapsed over a river in Quebec, taking the lives of one thousand construction workers.

<comment><USER4> Great comment, thanks. I agree on the difference between a Computer Science degree and a Software engineering degree. I have the former (Comp Sci), and that's the premise for my article. Many folks were never taught the strict definition of "engineering", and believe that's what they do as software devs. I _know_ that's not what I do.

<comment><USER3> I'm mostly OK with CS majors calling themselves Software Engineers. There are many applications for which that's appropriate.

My real gripe is with the "Software Engineers" who hung out their shingle after reading books like "Learn Java in 21 Days".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From Wikipedia:

> Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social, and > practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, > and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.

The author should probably revise his definition of engineering.</comment>


Homeless man who took coding lessons produces first app - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/homeless-coders-trees-for-cars-app-2013-12

<comment><USER2> Was not able to find what was the framework used. Any ideas on what was used to package the code into ios app?

Previous interviews mentioned they used Chromebook and Nitrious.IO to work and develop the project but seems like something else needed to package the javascript or rails code into the ios app? Or maybe I am missing something

<comment><USER3> From looking at the screenshots I'd say it's most likely Cordova/Phonegap w/ JQuery Mobile.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Someone post a review?

ps. Is that a gas station with grass???</comment>


Acknowledging public sex changed how walkers interacted with Paris - <AUTHOR> https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/between-streets <comment><USER2> I wonder how likely one was to get mugged walking the streets at night as opposed to being propositioned. It's not clear that night-time streets are a "public space" at all. I'd buy his notion of "public sex" if it happened during the day and prostitutes were mixed in with the vegetable stands, but the examples seem very weak.

<comment><USER3> It's a very short piece - perhaps he includes more in his book > Public City/Public Sex: Homosexuality, Prostitution, and Urban Culture in Nineteenth- Century Paris.

<comment><USER2> I looked through the Amazon preview and couldn't find anything interesting. The whole book seems to be discussion of historical sources within the decency vs pleasure kind of framing. If he does discuss the fact that prostitution happened mostly in the evening when there weren't many people around I expect it would be a few paragraphs at most, and quickly forgotten in the course of the book, since his focus is mostly on male prostitutes / pederasts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> A very tangential point. I would not translate "violenté" by "violated". It simply means being the target of violence, getting harmed. The author states that it doesn't imply a sexual assault yet reads a bit too much into the original text.

Edit : actually, the French language has evolved since then and back when the letter was written, "violenté" could indeed mean (sexually) violated, like our modern "violé". My bad.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you just admire the historical imagery for what it is, it's an amazing article.

Really, how can you resist this: "the boulevards are currently a veritable court of miracles planted in the middle of Sodom and Gomorrah, and soon all promenades on them will be forbidden not only to honest women who have not been able to show themselves for a long time, but also for men who should not have to be at odds with rascals."

</comment><comment><USER6> > "an honest man can no longer walk […] without being accosted by women who > engage in revolting touches

Sounds like sexual assault. The author's take:

> the unwilling participation in a public sexual culture threatened the urban > experience as imagined by privileged male pedestrians.

…? Freedom from sexual assault is an "urban experience as imagined by privileged male pedestrians"?

Maybe I'm missing something but the author's several tangents about patriarchy come across as totally non-sequitur in this article. Sure, male privilege is a thing, but what does it have to do with not wanting to be insulted/assaulted while out walking for the evening? What is the author's point?

I'm sure there's a point to be made about "women have had to endure such indignities, look at how men react when they are forced to too" but if that's what the author is trying to say, they're sure doing it in a ham-handed manner.

EDIT: After re-reading a few times I _think_ the point the author is trying to make is that _even_ privileged males, who typically could control the public space, were forced to reckon with the change in culture?

<comment><USER7> _Sounds like sexual assault_

Given the author's lack of concern, I think they are very opaquely alluding that the man must have secretly enjoyed it, therefore not sexual assault.

 _That these encounters bothered him enough to write, that they stayed with him after he moved on, highlights the ways sexual solicitation created new feelings and emotions that were anything but momentary._

<comment><USER8> It's not rape if they were aroused by it, right?

(Once upon a time I wouldn't have needed to put a /s here.)

<comment><USER9> That's arguably one of the worst things about rape. Your body can betray you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> >he was accosted by two young men with cheeks painted with makeup, who claimed to know him and who asked him to buy them some drinks. Langangne refused, which led the two men to launch a series of insults at him.

>As an employee within the Ministry of Finance, Langangne seemed to expect that the streets were in some ways "his."

Ross' reaction is quite bizarre. If a woman wrote a letter complaining about being catcalled and verbally abused in public, would you accuse her of "expecting that the streets are in some way hers"?

<comment><USER6> Ya I don't understand the author's thesis either. Is he trying to claim that the aggressive/invasive "public sex" culture depicted is just a different urban culture that is perfectly acceptable and valid but for some privileged males' self-centered ideas? Like, "suck it up dude, you're in gropingville now, get woke and deal with it"?

Maybe the author is going for some sort of meta thing. Like, "let's apply feminist theory _reductio ad absurdum_ to show that groping is OK!" If he is, I'm not smart enough to understand it.

<comment><USER11> You got it. The flâneur is knowingly intruding into the space of the street workers, but bringing his bourgeoise morality with him.

He also says (without evidence) that the complainant is likely a customer of the male prostitutes rather than an observer, who happens to have had a bad encounter. I really don't know where he gets this from.

<comment><USER12> His evidence is quoted directly from the letter where the letter writer says the men who accosted him might have confused him with someone they knew.

It's as good as analysis of a single stand-alone 1850s letter gets. That is to say, it's a narrative based on a massive string of assumptions and contextual clues.

<comment><USER11> Well that isn't evidence, that can barely be called conjecture. If it had been buttressed with references to other contemporary documents (arrest records, diary entries etc) it would have some weight.

<comment><USER12> Hence my second paragraph?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Whatever the merits of the author's scholarship, which I am fortunately unqualified to assess, I "feel" that the "English" "language" has been "violated" by the excessive "quotation marks". I can almost hear the author talk with air quotes.

<comment><USER13> There's nothing fortunate about being unqualified. The quotes are not air quotes, they are actual quotes (in translation) from the letters he is discussing.

Edit: there are some exceptions to this around paragraph 7. Anyway, discussing the finer points of the writing style doesn't seem worthwhile.

<comment><USER11> I suspect being qualified would in this case involve doing an MA in an esoteric field like gender studies in post revolutionary France, having a large education debt and poor writing skills, but at least being in-group.

The author isn't quoting to reference that the words are verbatim (which they are often not eg [1]), but because he wants to identify as someone who disagrees with the subject's world view, to diminish and mock them.

I comment on the writing style because it is jarringly poor and detracts from the argument. I thinks we are allowed to make such observations, but you are free to refrain from spending your time on counter arguments.

Ugh rate limiting is killing me. Is it like 3 posts per hour or something?

[1] >> The "violation" felt by thee two men at the attention of female prostitutes disrupted their ability to move about the city as they so chose, but it did not necessarily put into question their status as potential clients. Insofar as these "assaults" may have elicited a sexual response, they may have heightened their awareness of their status as sexual beings even as it challenged their gender privilege.

<comment><USER14> > I suspect being qualified would in this case involve doing an MA in an > esoteric field like gender studies in post revolutionary France, having a > large education debt and poor writing skills, but at least being in-group.

The author of the article has a PhD in history and is a professor of history at Loyola, which took less time to Google than commenting. Your comment feels like it crosses a line, your speculation doesn't make your argument more right. Justifying your opinion with imagined reasons makes it less likely to be valid, and reflects poorly on you.

> I think we are allowed to make such observations, but you are free to > refrain from spending your time on counter arguments.

You are equally free to refrain from posting negative, subjective, and somewhat off-topic opinion. You can also expect such opinions to find valid disagreement. Your suggestion that you are making "observations" suggests you believe your opinion to be true, and I don't doubt you think you're right, but from over here it looks to me like either the subject or the author's style is bothering you, not that the writing has any quality problems.

While you are "allowed" to make any observations you like, others are allowed to disagree. The guidelines here at HN do ask that you stay on-topic, and more importantly ask commenters to not speculate or to make ad-hominem arguments against other people. So, your comment is not exactly following the suggestions of what should be allowed.

Here are the specific guidelines that I believe the first sentence of your above comment crosses:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.

Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> " many Parisians began to see sex everywhere they looked. Encounters premised on these forms of sexual knowledge created a new sexual public."

Oh my, another reverse sexist propaganda piece written by a sophomore at Wellesley.

<comment><USER16> " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something._"

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is a title that raises an idea: What's the possibility that Hacker News might ignore limited punctuation to improve titles?

<comment><USER16> Title and punctuation department here. I don't quite apprehend your concern; can you elaborate?

<comment><USER18> Semi-related question: Do you still take the "original title" rule seriously, and if yes, what's a good way to refer articles that don't follow it? For example this popular post from yesterday doesn't have the original title or anything close to (or better than) it: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21082757](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21082757)

<comment><USER16> For sure we take it seriously. The best way is to email firstname.lastname@example.com if you see a problem.

In the case of that post, the submitter had emailed about it and we suggested that title as more informative than the original. Happy to hear feedback if we got that wrong!

<comment><USER18> "ImageNet for Code" is not a good title, I think, because I was mostly thinking of ImageNet of a dataset, not as an ongoing contest. Removing the "challenge" from the original title was not useful IMHO.

<comment><USER16> Good point. I've put the challenge back in the title. It's a bit of a monster now, but oh well.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


19% of Americans are considered 'upper class' – here's how much they earn - <AUTHOR> https://cnbc.com/2019/09/14/how-many-americans-are-considered-upper-class.html <comment><USER2> It always kind of amazes me when we try to have national conversations on taxation and who has 'too much money' and we never consider things like family size, which this article does - to move from upper class DINKs to upper class with three kids, you have to make 60% more money.

There's also age - if you're 5 years from retirement you need to have a _lifetime_ of money saved up.

And of course 'enough' money is very different when lunch is $8 versus $15.</comment>


Dell XPS Lineup Is Reinvigorated with Skylake on the New XPS 12, 13, and 15" - <AUTHOR> http://anandtech.com/show/9707/dell-xps-lineup-is-reinvigorated-with-skylake-on-the-new-xps-12-xps-13-and-xps-15 <comment><USER2> I previously owned a Dell XPS-15 from early 2014, The top spec model with high-res touchscreen and quad core i7, and had no end of problems. I wonder if they have resolved the ongoing quality issues that seemed common back then such as coil whine and the amazingly poor battery life from models with a dedicated GPU. The specs seem good though, and the 13" model seems promising.</comment>


How much does music licensing cost for commercial use? - <AUTHOR> Hey, I was wondering if it is alright to play commercial music at Cafes and Restaurants without any licensing. I read about BMI and other licensing companies and found out that they charge for music licensing (being non profit themselves). If any of you happen to be involved in the music industry or have done something related to it, it would be great if you can walk me through the licensing process and also about the fees.
P.S. : Let's say I own a chain of cafes and I want to play commercial music.
Thanks! :) <comment><USER2> Here's a link which will answer many of those questions, at least relative to U.S. law:

[http://www.restaurant.org/Manage-My- Restaurant/Operations/Re...](http://www.restaurant.org/Manage-My- Restaurant/Operations/Regulatory-back-office/11-questions-about-music- licensing)

</comment><comment><USER3> In Germany you register your cafe(s) with the GEMA and be done, other countries have similar agencies.</comment>


Rekit 2.0: new way of React development - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@nate_wang/feature-oriented-architecture-for-web-applications-2b48e358afb0 <comment><AUTHOR> Update the link: [https://medium.com/@nate_wang/rekit-2-0-next-generation- reac...](https://medium.com/@nate_wang/rekit-2-0-next-generation-react- development-ce8bbba51e94)</comment>


A typical programmers toolbox - <AUTHOR> http://www.jeremymorgan.com/blog/programming/a-typical-programmers-toolbox/

<comment><USER2> I think the title should be "A typical .NET/Microsoft programmers toolbox", as most of the tools listed are useable by MS devs. Case in point, I'm a web developer and I don't have/need most of these in my working laptop (an mba11).

</comment><comment><USER3> All of a sudden it occurs to me that two people can be called 'programmer' and do radically different things. Surely the typical programmer's toolbox is: an editor, a compiler/interpreter/magic lisp box/whatever, and possibly a debugger.

<comment><USER4> similar to my toolbox, as an embedded engineer, the number of compilers that I have on my computer is about 8 installation for various different micros, along with this is the same number of debuggers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use none of them. Maybe it should be renamed as a windows programmer's toolbox.

</comment><comment><USER6> OK, here's my list, just the things I use frequently in my programming work and not all the other apps I have installed:

\- 3Dconnexion 3DxSoftware (3D mouse driver)

\- 7-Zip

\- ActiveState Komodo IDE

\- Araxis Merge

\- AutoHotkey_L

\- Camtasia Studio

\- Corel PaintShop Pro X5

\- Evernote

\- Everything (fast disk search)

\- Eye-One Match (display calibrator)

\- Fiddler (debugging proxy server)

\- FolderSizes 6

\- Git and various git clients (none I'm crazy about)

\- Google App Engine

\- Google Chrome (and Canary)

\- Google Earth

\- GraphicsMagick

\- HM NIS Edit

\- iDisplay (use Android device as extra display)

\- ImageMagick

\- IntelliJ IDEA

\- JetBrains ReSharper

\- JKLmouse (my keyboard home row mouse control program)

\- Manifold System (GIS)

\- MarkdownPad

\- Microsoft Office 2010

\- Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

\- Mozilla Firefox

\- Nullsoft Install System

\- PaymoPlus (automatic time tracking)

\- pdfsam (PDF split and merge)

\- PostGIS

\- PostgreSQL

\- PuTTY (just for Pageant to use with git)

\- Python (several versions)

\- Quantum GIS

\- Ruby

\- Safari

\- SciTE4AutoHotkey

\- StorageCraft ShadowProtect

\- Sublime Text 2

\- Take Command

\- TortoiseGit

\- TortoiseHg

\- TypeScript

\- UEStudio

\- UltraMon

\- VanDyke Software SecureCRT and SecureFX

\- VistaSwitcher (better Alt+Tab menu)

\- VMware Workstation

\- WebDrive

\- XML Marker 2.1 (great editor for JSON as well as XML)

\- Zeus for Windows (Go IDE)

</comment><comment><USER7> ... really? All I use is Sublime, Terminal, and Google Chrome.

<comment><USER8> Exactly. An editor, a shell and a browser is all you need.

I feel sorry for all MS devs who have to use so many platform-specific tools.

<comment><USER6> > An editor, a shell and a browser is all you need.

That's great that those are all you need, but they aren't all I need. I wouldn't be able to do the work I do with only those tools. And _you_ wouldn't be able to do the work I do with only those tools either. :-)

Not comparing the value of my work or yours or our skills in selecting and using tools, just saying that the work we do is quite different, and requires different tools, even though we may both be called programmers.

> I feel sorry for all MS devs who have to use so many platform-specific > tools.

Don't feel sorry. I'm not even an MS dev these days and I have a very lengthy list of tools I use routinely. (See elsewhere on this page.) And I like it that way: I'm happy that there are so many great tools available to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> \- Google.com (and stackoverflow.com that's mostly reached via google search queries)

\- Sublime Text 2

\- Gtalk+Google Hangout

\- Gmail

\- Decent Operating system with decent package management and shell (for example ubuntu + apt-get + bash)

\- Git

\- Google Chrome

\- Cloud

\- HackerNews

</comment><comment><USER10> I find there's very little that is typical about programmers other than in an abstract way. Compilers/editors/etc.

It largely depends on the domain in which they are working, and their own preferences to the tools the use.

</comment><comment><USER11> This should be renamed to "My typical programming toolbox"

Except for Skype (I'm moving to google talk very soon tho) I don't use any of these tools. And I highly doubt anyone on HN use any of it as well :P

</comment><comment><USER12> Seems more like "A typical Jeremy Morgan Toolbox". Most of that would be superfluous for being _typical_ in the general sense of a text editor, a reader of some sort, and an execution environment.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm surprised no browser has made the list. Though odds are it's Internet Explorer.

</comment><comment><USER14> Maybe, a (typical programmer's) toolbox.</comment>


Unmanned drone buzzes French police car - <AUTHOR> http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/20472463/unmanned-drone-buzzes-french-police-car

<comment><USER2> I was talking about the concept of using Parrot drones or helicopters to do news footage and get views above crowds with a guy who has an autonomous helicopter. He quickly burst the concept by pointing out to me that his autonomous helicopter has a 6 foot diameter rotor made of carbon fiber. Or in his words "If I lost control of it over a crowd, what damage do you think two samurai swords coming in at 30 mph could do to a bunch of people? People that fly drones over crowds are assholes". (his words, but I thought they were worth noting)

A Parrot drone is much smaller, but I still wouldn't want to be hit with one, spinning propellers and all. I had one and found it hard to control with any wind in the area.

<comment><USER3> It sounds like basing your drone on a blimp could be practical. It's going to stay reasonably steady, and it can stay up for a long time with a fairly large payload. Also, no big moving parts to decapitate people.

<comment><USER4> Let's not forget the most important part. Blimps are cool.

<comment><USER5> On the other hand, they're also pretty big and visible targets... oO;

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Super cool. This makes me want to go and buy a drone + VR.

Actual youtube link just in case you don't want to visit news corp www's. <http://youtu.be/ojIz5Mai2Rw>

</comment><comment> n-mx It feels very much like being there. It probably feels even more so when you are working the controls. Perhaps this could be provided to shut-in invalids, or as tourism. Rather than flying their bodies to the other side of the world, customers would sit at home controlling copters over the Internet. That would require adding some automated evasive protections.

</comment><comment><USER7> they're famous for challenging law officers etc to get hits on the videos, they've done similar stuff in the US, mind you. It's unclear if they're allowed to go back to the US right now, as they got gear confiscated and got jailed/sent back once.

I doubt the french cops really care, but purposefully attempting to annoy officers is probably not a very good idea with or without a drone that is ;)

</comment><comment><USER8> This seems like something that'd get you locked up in America.

<comment><USER9> >I'm disappointed that so many cowards are watching our videos, being afraid of government taking away your liberties at the first sign of you using them. grow a pair

(from their youtube link).

<comment><USER8> Um... not exactly sure what the point of that was?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Note that its almost infinitely cheaper to hide a camera on the group than to put the camera in the air. Or just peek thru the curtains in a window. Fooling around with non-R/C people using a R/C vehicle has been frowned upon in the R/C community since the 70s due to obvious danger and liability, so its much more likely your flying buddies will ostracize you or turn you in resulting in a human intel victory rather than exotic technological means tracking you down via doppler D/F techniques or whatever.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'll take two! It seemed to perform very well.

</comment><comment><USER12> It's all fun and games until you misjudge the height of an oncoming vehicle and slam it through the windscreen.

<comment><USER13> It doesn't even have to be a human error. Birds in/near cities are happy to attack R/C models. If you see your model you can run away from them, but if you only have the camera view, you won't see what's happening.

Now think that even slightly cracked propeller will easily break off at 10k+ rpm. When this happened for me, piece of the propeller ended up ~10cm under the surface of slightly frozen ground. Fortunately it flew straight down after it broke - I believe it could be lethal if it hit some person instead.

TL;DR, even if you don't make a mistake and can't see a mechanical fault, flying R/C models can be very dangerous. Flying close to people is irresponsible even if you're experienced with controlling them.</comment></comment>


Goodbye cruel online world - (Facebook (social network) Suicide) - <AUTHOR> http://valleywag.com/tech/trends/goodbye-cruel-online-world-300153.php

<comment><USER2> I almost feel like upvoting this just for the nested parenthesis.</comment>


BitFS Bitcoin-powered File System - <AUTHOR> https://bitfs.co/ <comment><USER2> having trouble uploading a ~4mb jpg: "413 Request Entity Too Large"

also, you apparently need to contribute BTC in order to upload: "You have insufficient funds to upload 66.0 kB."

<comment><USER2> if you are wondering how to download, like i was, try downloading something first. after that you will effectively be "logged in" and have access to upload.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> That is sick ! I really like it ! When will you opensource it ?</comment>


Ask HN: Dropbox for source control - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone currently use Dropbox for source control instead of GitHub, etc?  What are the pros and cons? <comment><USER2> I think it's a poor idea.

A set of backup snapshots is not the same as source control. Your source control history is a story you tell about your code. Each commit is an important event, encapsulated on its own, with a person to blame and a text description and a definite date. Whereas a history of file changes is just a history of file changes.

The other point to make is that there is only one timeline of file changes. That is far too one-dimensional for code development. You need the ability to branch.

Using Dropbox for source control is like publishing an hour-by-hour activity log and claiming it's your autobiography:

      9 am: Typing. Still breathing.
      10am: Typing. Still breathing.
      11am: walking to lunch, breathing faster
      noon: eating.
      1pm: typing. Still breathing.

You want a system that tracks the deliberately edited, important points of the story. You _also_ want backups, of course, but they don't accomplish the same thing.

<comment><USER3> Also, Dropbox only keeps 30 days by default unless you pay for the Pack Rat option.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Mercurial, Git, Fossil, etc. are all extremely easy to setup. I'd setup one of those and then setup a branch/clone in DropBox. Mercurial and Git have hooks that can run when a commit is finished. Just write a quick hook that automatically keeps the branch/clone in sync with your changes.

</comment><comment><USER4> Dropbox solve one part of the source control equation. It doesn't handle conflicts nor annotations well at all.

It may be adequate protection from code loss, but does it enable you to work in a team?

</comment><comment><USER5> I have been using Dropbox for over 3-4 months now. Initially we used it with mercurial. But later on we moved to fossil as it's a more natural fit. It's perfect for small teams and it's cheap..

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been doing it with a small iphone project I've been working on with a friend. I can't say it's a good idea but it's better than nothing.</comment>


Ask HN: Why are lenders allowed to discriminate against the self-employed? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> you did not provide any details... but usually it's due to the difficulty you have in proving a reliable and steady income. It's not "discrimination", it's viewing you as an unknown and/or higher risk.

When you have a job/career, provided by someone else, you are viewed as likely to be more stable in regards to your monthly income. Typically your monthly income is fixed or round-about the same as every month, providing said stability. This is viewed as lower risk, because they can judge how likely they believe you are capable of repaying your debt. Yes, you may lose your job/are terminated, and they take this into account as well, usually by noting how long you have been employed at the current location, etc. Other factors contribute to your ability to be take on debt, such as if you own your home or rent, and how much your monthly payments are, any other existing large loans, etc.

When you are self employed, it is difficult to gauge the level of stability you may have. One month may be great, the other not so great. It's also difficult to prove on paper exactly what you are paid since you are paying yourself (nobody to vouch for you), and it could be temporarily artificially inflated with the intent of getting a loan, etc. Being self employed, they may view you as higher risk also due to your priorities (ie. your business). In the event you fall on hard times, will you pay the debt back first and foremost or will you struggle to save your business (because it's the only method of income). This contributes, along with other factors, to you being viewed as a higher risk.

I'd wager different types of loans will be more accessible than others, such as a business loan if you are in fact incorporated or an LLC (I don't know about sole proprietorships but my guess would be it varies by state/country). The purpose of the loan will greatly effect you ability to take on the debt, ie. a personal loan because you just want some new things is not likely to be granted unless you put of collateral.

Of course, a lot of this depends on the lender and their policies/terms. I'm not an expert, so if this is a problem for you currently I'd recommend reaching out to a few different lenders and asking them to explain their polices.</comment>


Ron Miller: DRM has always been a horrible idea - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244818/Ron_Miller_DRM_has_always_been_a_horrible_idea

<comment><USER2> This really isn't a good article. It's not terribly eloquent, nor is it unique or new.

Also, it avoids the big, ugly question. The author writes: _It was warped thinking, and it produced bizarre results._ That's about copy protection, a.k.a. "Digital Rights Management" in Newspeak. Great, warped thinking. Honestly, I don't think that mere fear can cause decades long periods of "warped thinking". Most people get talked out of "warped thinking" fairly readily, when they see some evidence, or some bad fallout from that warped thinking. The popular culture industry can't possibly be on a decades long binge of warped thinking. There's got to be some other motive. And that's what this article resists thinking about.</comment>


Ask HN: What are the "Best Practices" you generally follow? Here is mine. - <AUTHOR>

Recently I encountered some of the best practices (IMO) on HN/Reddit and I really appreciate them and religiously follow. I would like to hear more that are really helping you succeed in life. Let us consolidate them in one place. No Quotes please.<p>* Start every day as a producer, not a consumer. Start your first free moments of the day with thoughts of what you really want to do;<p>* Always be learning something. I always have at least one learning project going on at all times. Last time it was korean language and right now its photography.<p>* Take Minimalistic approach in Design or at your home (by de-cluttering things once in a while).<p>* Whatever you do, do it with Confidence. If you are taking a stand which you think might be wrong, be confident then only people will believe.<p>* "Always do the right thing", even if it comes at personal cost. Don't worry abt result. At that moment if you feel right, then go ahead.<p>* Presentation skills: whatever you present, present with enthusiasm. If you are not showing interest in what you present, why will audience do??<p>* Hot girl effect Networking - Never hesitate to say Hi or drop a mail to greet someone who is a top guy. Apply this technique to increase your networking with celebs, CEOs etc <comment><USER2> One practice that I use is to set an hourly reminder on my phone to tell me that I need to focus and, that I have long term plans and dreams. Positive enforcement, and it works like a charm every time I have used it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Best practices for what? I think it would help a lot to define the scope of what you are trying to optimize. Otherwise you have an impossible question like "how do I be the best?"

</comment><comment><USER4> "some of the best practices (IMO) on HN/Reddit" - link?

</comment><comment><USER5> You might be interested in Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues.

<comment><USER6> Worth posting to bootstrap the uninitiated, from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Thirteen_Virt...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#Thirteen_Virtues)

        "Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation."
        "Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation."
        "Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time."
        "Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve."
        "Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing."
        "Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions."
        "Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly."
        "Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty."
        "Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve."
        "Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation."
        "Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable."
        "Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation."
        "Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates."</comment></comment>


We're Getting Ripped Off - <AUTHOR> https://slate.com/business/2019/09/health-insurance-us-kaiser-study.html <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21073443](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21073443)

<comment><USER3> Is this a repost? Because that one doesn't look like this one.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not a repost, but indeed the same topic and data

</comment></comment></comment><comment> d--b I just moved from the US to France, and thought that I would get ripped off by the taxes here. But I did the exact same calculation. If you factor in Health insurance I'm much better off here (even without factoring the $4000 deductible I had in the US).

If you add free school and free university, there is no comparison, France is way cheaper.

</comment><comment><USER4> I wish conversations about public healthcare in the US included discussions about innovation in the healthcare industry.

We don't need to argue that consolidating buyers (e.g. single payer) has more market power and can negotiate prices down. This is an accepted principle among economists.

I am very curious about what affects single-payer in the US would have on global healthcare innovation. E.g. concepts like:

> the high spending of health care consumers in the United States is arguably > funding not only global pharmaceutical innovation but is also facilitating > the availability of new medicines to other countries at much lower prices > than domestic consumers pay.

[https://arcdigital.media/u-s-health-care-reality- check-1-pha...](https://arcdigital.media/u-s-health-care-reality- check-1-pharmaceutical-innovation-574241fb80ba)

<comment><USER5> Is there any serious research that shows this to be true?

In America, the Big Lie that all Americans tell about themselves and their country, is that the US is #1 in everything. And, if statistics happen to show that the US isn't #1, there's always a reason, an excuse, as to why in this instance the US isn't #1, but it totally could be, it just doesn't want to, or it has to deal with some exceptional circumstance that lesser countries just don't have to deal with.

To me, the idea that the US subsidizes global healthcare innovation feels just like such an excuse. It gives Americans an opportunity to martyr themselves. "We could have cheaper healthcare, but we bear this burden, for you."

Come on. It's a load of horseshit.

And even if it were true, why would you accept it? America hates altruism, deriding it as socialism, so much so that "socialized" healthcare is seen as a horrible thing. It's not ok for Americans to pay for each other's healthcare, but it's suddenly perfectly ok to pay for the development of healthcare for other countries?!? You're happily spending healthcare money for the benefit of other countries, but not your own population?

This makes no sense. This can't be true. It's a bad excuse to cover up failed exceptionalism, because the truth is simply that a lot of people with money to pay for lobbyists are benefiting from the current system.

<comment><USER6> 1\. American culture may be anti-altruism, but I can still argue that altruism is a good thing. Developing life saving drugs is a good thing. I'd like to think that on this forum everyone can agree that technological innovation is incredibly important. Of course I would prefer everyone contributes to drug research costs, but if others aren't willing to pick up the slack I am.

2\. Drugs cost upwards of a billion dollars to develop. Plenty of failed drugs cost a billion dollars before they fail. If drug companies don't make money they will stop developing drugs.

<comment><USER7> > 9 of 10 top drugmakers spend more on marketing than research

> These spending numbers are at odds with a common claim by pharmaceutical > companies that they need to patent drugs for extraordinary amounts of time > to justify the massive amounts of money spent on research. Not only do many > top drugmakers appear to spend more on advertising, but their profit > margins, the BBC noted, are often larger than their research spending.

[https://www.vox.com/2015/2/11/8018691/big-pharma-research- ad...](https://www.vox.com/2015/2/11/8018691/big-pharma-research-advertising)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Another thing to point out. We pay for the un/under-insured through high medical prices.

And as for high deductible plans. People tend to put off routine procedures and tests which then compound into more expensive procedures and care.

<comment><USER9> I can't force myself to understand this Ferengi-like mindset.

Paying for the un/under-insured through for-profit intermediaries is what lead to high medical prices. If it's a social service, if should be funded through taxes.

And people putting off routine procedures and tests, which then compound into more expensive procedures and care, can be explained not just by apathy, but by the high cost of doing routine medical care.

My dad slightly burned his forearm opening the radiator cap of his car. He drove to the hospital, where they washed his arm, put gauze, tape and sent him home with a non-negotiable $600 USD bill. He's Mexican, but they can collect in Mexico too. As a side note, this would have cost him $0 in Mexico, because taxes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Let's just say people could agree that a public system or option was actually the right course of action. I think the most interesting / challenging part would be the transition into that system from what we currently have. To me, that would be more interesting to read about than arguments about how to change peoples minds.

<comment><USER11> I support Medicare for all but I'm also realistic that it will result in a two-tiered public/private system, similar to what the UK has with the NHS and separate cash pay services and private insurance. The key is to disconnect the private system from employment where the costs and purchase decisions are obfuscated from the end consumer. When a critical mass of consumers pay out of pocket for services, the market will drive down prices and increase transparency. At least that's the best shot at it, based on what I've seen.

<comment><USER12> I would be careful likening that system to the NHS - the NHS is much more fully nationalized than a medicare for all system would be

<comment><USER11> It would be at first. But if almost all of a hospital's revenue comes from CMS, why wouldn't CMS simply run the hospital? If it can run provider networks more efficiently, why not hospitals? At least that's how I predict the political discussion will evolve.

<comment><USER6> Government programs will never be as efficient as private ones unless they utilize market power to make themselves price setters. Nationalized health insurance is a great idea, but nationalized health care would be much more difficult to implement, and would likely not be as good as the system we currently have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is a useful way to discuss the cost of healthcare. Premiums are a silent tax we pay out of our paychecks.

I actually think the most capitalist solution is to remove this burden from businesses entirely and create some public alternative to live alongside the private system. There should not be some magic number of employees where your startup suddenly has to put together a benefits package for everyone. That's not good for growth or competition.

<comment><USER14> I can't even image who would argue against it. What was the point of tying health insurance to work in the first place? I'm finally in a situation where I'm managing my own insurance and being compensated for the "lack of benefits" directly. I got a plan way better than my last one, for $5 more than what my side of the cost was. And I no longer feel chained to my employer. Even if you like where you work, that's not a good situation to be in. Companies get the worst options, and it still cost both parties a horrible amount, and now the employee is stuck with that crappy plan when they could have shopped around for a much better deal directly.

<comment><USER15> The current system is because of wage fixing by the government during WW2. It was a way for employers to differentiate at a time when wages weren't available as an option. I agree that the free market is the place to do this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "Americans are already paying enough to fund a European-style welfare state." Why do we tolerate this. Vote next time.</comment>