African Drummers Invented an Internet - <AUTHOR> http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2013/03/african-drummers-invented-internet.html

<comment><USER2> Choice quote from article: "So the drum languages seem to put importance on uniquely identifying individuals, something that our Internet is just starting to figure out. (See ORCID.) Reputation of individuals was important; I wonder if creators of particularly compelling drum poems were identified by custom, as we're starting to learn how to do with Attribution licenses."</comment>


The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9/source <comment><USER2> To summarize, this paper's argument is that SARS-COV-2 can't be lab grown because: 1\. It uses a different method of binding to ACE 2 than has previously been found to be most efficient 2\. It has several mutations that are of unknown consequence 3\. It doesn't have any retrovirus (tool for manipulating virus) backbone

The paper then concludes that SARS-COV-2 must be a result of natural selection. While I think this is possible, they ignore the possibility that the virus is a result of artificial selection. If a laboratory were studying how SARS-COV-2 could pass to humans, they might serially pass the virus between mammals (like pangolins) in order to artificially select for mutations.

That is, in fact, exactly what previous scientists did in a 2012 experiment with bird flu. They wanted to make it transmissible between mammals, so they serially passed genetically modified bird flu between ferrets until it was. I wrote this up on my blog:[https://get21stnight.com/2020/04/14/why-do-some- viruses-cros...](https://get21stnight.com/2020/04/14/why-do-some-viruses- cross-over-from-animals/) . The result of this is that bird flu acquired previously unknown mutations in order to pass between mammals.

I'm not saying this is what happened, and there are some key differences (i.e. in the bird flu experiment, scientists had to start off with a genetically modified virus). Still, I disagree that we can definitively conclude this was a result of natural selection.

<comment><USER3> Can you help me understand why scientists would intentionally take a virus that can't transmit in humans and go to lengths to make it transmissible in humans? Just at a gut level that seems reckless and irresponsible to me, but people talk about it like it's normal and no big deal... so, help me understand?

Also, if it was somehow proven that the virus did come from a Chinese lab, what does that mean? Will the world hold China liable for this mess? That seems unlikely to me, rather I assume it would come down to "big stick diplomacy" and China carries a pretty big stick. But is there any precedent for a disease being leaked from a lab and the lab being held responsible for the consequences?

<comment><USER4> Powerful people can be very religious.

[https://wearethene.ws/notable/95575](https://wearethene.ws/notable/95575)

<comment><USER5> Can you please stop posting flamebait to HN?

<comment><USER4> Historically, what I illuded to is almost a law of nature. I could have elaborated, but is it really necessary? People dont need stuff spelled out, and pointing that out didnt start a flame. That's the founder of CNN... his opinions effect people; it shouldn't be off limits to discuss. Parent ultimately was asking about the def of irresponsible is, and might not have considered that other people have other definitions.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17781131](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17781131)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> >While the analyses above suggest that SARS-CoV-2 may bind human ACE2 with high affinity, computational analyses predict that the interaction is not ideal and that the RBD sequence is different from those shown in SARS-CoV to be optimal for receptor binding

Sounds like it could evolve to be more transmissible in humans. The more people it infects, the more likely that is to happen.

With that in mind, "flattening the curve" is even more essential.

<comment><USER7> Most viruses will start very harmful but tend to mutate into less lethal stains causing them to spread further.

The Oxford study talks about the S and L strains. The L strain is the more deadly one, but it's likely not made it very far.

<comment><USER8> Source on the first claim?

The S/L strain study has been heavily challenged, see commentary at [https://nextstrain.org/help/coronavirus/FAQ#is-one-strain- of...](https://nextstrain.org/help/coronavirus/FAQ#is-one-strain-of-the- covid-19-virus-more-severe)

<comment><AUTHOR> I do remember this phenomenon being mentioned quite a few times in my genetics classes. Don't remember the name, unfortunately. But the logic is fairly obvious:a virus wants you to die just as little as humans want the earth to die.

As I remember it, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference here. The classic case mentioned were extremely fast & lethal viruses such as Ebola & Marburg: When a virus kills you within two or three days of infection, any small change can easily double that time and thereby gain significantly better chances of transmission. But for Covid (and, before that, HIV) the infectious period is pretty long already and any improvements would matter less in relative terms.

<comment><USER8> Pathogens can definitely evolve to improve fitness and settle into an ecological balance with their hosts. I more meant to contest that most start out very harmful. I don't think we have data to support that, or to be able to separate virus vs. host adaptations that would cause the appearance of lessened severity, given that most viruses circulating today have ancient origins.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Only four dupes ranging from a month ago: [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=proximal+origin](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=proximal+origin)

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm fairly convinced it wasn't designed or engineered, but I do think it escaped from the Wuhan virus lab. That they had invited american scientists to the lab and asked for advice in securing it satisfies me that they weren't doing biological weapons research, the fact that they were studying coronaviruses in a facility where the outbreak happened and americans were sounding the alarm on security months before hand is too much of a coincidence for me to believe the story that it came from a wet market.

<comment><USER11> I agree, they were most likely studying SARS like viruses to prevent future outbreaks, but due to employee negligence it got out.

<comment><USER12> I'm torn between not being able to entirely dismiss this theory, and the harm it could cause putting this out there whether true or not.

Even more geopolitical distrust is the last thing we need right now, but how do you look the other way?

Edit: look the other way referring specifically to any cover up done, fwiw.

<comment><USER13> Its gossip. Don't spread gossip.

<comment><USER12> Welp, cats outta the bag on that one.

<comment><USER13> The OP indicated natural origin. The rest is speculation/gossip.

<comment><USER10> So? People speculate on hacker news all the time. It's a plausible theory for what happened.

<comment><USER13> Its a conspiracy theory. And bigoted one.

<comment><USER14> If there was a viral outbreak at a grocery store within a mile of a CDC infectious diseases lab, no one would assume its bigoted to speculate a containment breach as a possible origin.

Its actually less bigoted than the assumption the media pushed before which was that someone ate a bat or because of unsanitary health practices regarding the handling of wild animals.

This at least assumes someone was doing scientific research and accidental exposure occurred and no one noticed until it was too late.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> See this Aussie news program showing the the lockdown in Wuhan. Clearly the authorities were terrified. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycrqXJYf1SU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycrqXJYf1SU)

</comment><comment><USER16> Why is this one-month-old paper reposted now that the lab leak theory is regaining traction in media outlets?

Here is the conclusion of the paper: "[…] we do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible".

Here is the title of Scripps Research Institute press release about their publication: "The COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin, scientists say".

Here are some links to Scripps Research press releases of multi-million dollars deals with chinese labs:

[https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press- room/2017/2017...](https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press- room/2017/20170608chempharma.html)

[https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press- room/2019/2019...](https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press- room/2019/20191127-szbl-collaboration.html)

[https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/yisheng- biopharma-...](https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/yisheng-biopharma- announces-research-collaboration-with-the-scripps-research-institute-in- developing-new-aids-vaccine-/)

I am not going to address the china-praising statements and political stances from main researcher twitter account at a time when CCP cover-up was already known worldwide.

At the time this paper was published, moderators on social networks deleted any possible discussion on the topic. Copy-paste op's link in reddit search bar and see how many comments were deleted from related discussion.

<comment><USER17> Are you suggesting that .. China is going to engineer a virus and release it in its own population?

And then shut the whole country down and pray that it would spread fast and worse elsewhere?

Let's just say that back in early February nobody even in China thought that other countries are going to be affected. It is a disaster for the CCP at the time that had popular opinion on the internet swing suddenly and violently against the government.

Now, seeing how other countries reacted, that suddenly was not the case anymore. And the CCP have no ability to control other countries action.

<comment><USER18> > Let's just say that back in early February nobody even in China thought that > other countries are going to be affected.

This is ridiculous. If you mean Nov. or early Dec., maybe. But by Jan. corona was nation-wide. Amd Wuhan has an international airport.

Mid-Jan. documented widely-known pandemic at latest:

[https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/asia/china-wuhan- coronavirus-...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/16/asia/china-wuhan-coronavirus- ap-intl-hnk/index.html)

Disney world Shanghai was closed Jan. 24 (Disney should have told the US CDC it was that bad in China.)

Known to be contagious? early Dec.

<comment><USER17> > Known to be contagious? early Dec.

Source?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


News.yc "user" nickb is actually a sockpuppet for Paul Graham? - <AUTHOR> http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152361 <comment><USER2> Guys, it's a joke: <http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=pg>

<comment><USER3> Damn. Forgot that. Yes, sorry, it's an April Fools' joke. Thanks, Alex, for helping out. The recent outage (now fixed, let's hope) is unconnected, btw.

<comment><USER4> What a pity. I had been assuming for a while that nickb was a code for 'nickname b' (where pg was 'nickname a').

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've waited as long as I can stand it before inserting a spoiler:

"In the early 1990s, I was writing a lot of essays and columns for magazines and journals, so much so that I was using a pseudonym for some of that work: Nickieben Bourbaki. The original idea for the name was that my staff at Lucid would help with the writing, and the single pseudonym would represent the collective, much as the French mathematicians in the 1930s used "Nicolas Bourbaki" as their collective name while rewriting the foundations of mathematics in their image. However, no one but I wrote anything under that name."

<http://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html>

<comment><USER6> Dang. It's either that or a whole tonne of French mathematicians. Good work!

<comment><USER5> I can't take too much credit. I bit on the story hook, line and sinker. I started to write a comment saying in essence, "So what if Paul is writing under a nom de plume, there are good reasons for doing so..."

One of the good examples that came immediately to mind was Richard Gabriel. So I Googled "Worse Is Better" and copied that exact paragraph to insert as a quotation to support my point.

Then I read what I had just pasted and the light went on...

<comment><USER6> Oh, let me tell you the lead-up there is perfect—serendipitous or otherwise. I had a smooth transition: "Really? That seems pretty interes---- oh man, brilliant!"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This reminds one time when I first started playing Counter Strike. I found myself alone one night and could finally play CS without anyone bitching, so I indulged late into the night teaming up with this very highly efficient group of players. Their usage of team commands was incredible and I, being a newbie, followed the better players around closely, often being the support gunner. The teamwork was magical and you just felt the chemistry.

After a few hours, I decided to start making small talk. Then, to my horror, I realized I had been playing with bots the entire time.

I just hope the rest of you are real.

<comment><USER8> Does it please you to just hope the rest of I are real?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=143143>

5 points by nickb 10 days ago | link | parent | on: Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have c...

[http://www.cypress.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&...](http://www.cypress.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&..).

reply

2 points by pg 9 days ago | link

That's it! Thanks, Nick. I haven't seen this for 15 years.

reply

</comment><comment><USER10> Pseudonyms can be used to good effect. Ben Franklin used them extensively. They're especially good for testing out or spreading ideas you'd like to have considered apart from their source.

When I started a small social site, the first thing I did was create 40 nicknames and start talking to myself. Boot-strapping a social site is tough. Most users leave if they see an empty site.

<comment><USER11> I have an uncle that tried that when he opened a pub. It didn't quite work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This thing is starting to take on an eerie "Paul is dead" aura.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> C.f. the whole thread here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=151461>

All I can say is wow. Especially after his most recent essay on intellectual honesty. What bullshit. TechStars is looking better and better all the time.

<comment><USER13> Chillout. Keep in mind that every website that depends on community activity, starts as a ghost town, with fictional accounts, (which are owned by the creators of the website) that start posting/commenting, to get it jump started, and make new commers feel like there is a reason to stay.

Every single web 2.0 website does this, so I don't think that is dishonest. Maybe Pg. liked the anonimity of his alter ego, nickb, and kept posting on his name, and got carried on (and forgot to switch names). And if you see nickb, stats, he is probably the oldest user in here.

user: nickb created: 406 days ago karma: 10982 about: My email: nickb.yc {at} gmail.

This is the only site where I comment/post. I am not 'nickb' on any other site.

<comment><USER3> Just so we're clear on this, I _asked_ Alex to post the above. He's just pretending to be upset.

<comment><USER14> Somehow I still feel cheated. I'm working on a social news site, and we do not use ghost accounts or fake stats. People still suspect us doing it anyway :( Now I know - they have a good reason to suspect _everybody_.

<comment><USER15> For a site like jaanix or reddit (or news.yc), there's no implicit fraud in having lots of ghost accounts, as long as you don't include them in stats to advertisers or whatever. People come for the content, not because others are there.

<comment><USER14> Unlike reddit or news.yc, jaanix has a recommender that is based on implicit trust between the users. Sock puppets destroy this trust.

<comment><USER15> Hm. It still seems like consistency would fix that. It would make "doing it right" a little harder, but it could be done with no loss for normal users, I think.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I can think of other explanations including April Fools Day, data corruption and a problematic upgrade which affected accounts and logins. Alteratively, given the essay What You Can't Say ( <http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html> ) and the recent drop in essay quality, it is possible that some essays are ghost written.

<comment><USER17> I have evidence that pg has been outsourcing everything, and is now working a 4 hour work week.

Willing to sell this evidence to the highest bidder, but pg has already offered a spot in the next YC round to me. He also is throwing in tickets and a flight down for startup school after I complained here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=148485>

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Has anyone seen nickb and pg at the same time in the same place?

<comment><USER19> Has anyone seen nickb, _ever_?

<comment><USER20> I have it on good authority that if you come to Startup School in 2-3 weeks from now, you will :)

<comment><USER19> I'm pretty sure that the same can be said about Paul Graham.

Now I don't know if you are saying this because you are really PG in desguise (btw, what've happened to bugbear?) or if you is really you. Damn, stop confusing me! :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> He was probably posting from a computer at YC HQ that nickb used before him. You people are like children.

</comment><comment><USER22> OK, April 1 is over, so which is it?

Either way, great job with the confusion.

<comment><USER23> nickb is Enoch Root.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> oh, snap. pawn3d. I still like him thou, and I liked nickb too.

</comment><comment><USER24> _News.yc "user" nickb is actually a sockpuppet for Paul Graham??_

I doubt it.

</comment><comment><USER25> If it's a joke, why nickb didn't reply in this thread? ;-)

<comment><USER20> Sorry, was too busy with work... I finally found some time and saw the thread.

<comment><USER26> Good one, paul.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> April Fools?

</comment><comment><USER28> You guys don't know anything. Chuck_Norris is pg's sock puppet.</comment>


82 Billion objects in Amazon S3 in Q3 (up from 52B in Q1) - <AUTHOR> http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2009/11/82_billion_objects_in_amazon_s.html

<comment><USER2> S3 is fairly much awesome. Has anyone here ever lost data in S3 (not counting human/admin errors)? I've twice had issues with EBS volumes, but never with S3. Also, at least for my applications, S3 is so cheap.

Anyway, I may get bit by this someday, but I infrequently back up what I keep in S3.

<comment><USER3> I would expect that what I store in any cloud server is never lost, so having two problems would EBS would be enough for me not to trust them again.</comment></comment>


Surprising effect of light could change solar power generation - <AUTHOR> http://smartenergyshow.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/surprising-effect-of-light-could-change-solar-power-generation/

<comment><USER2> Source paper: "Optically-induced charge separation and terahertz emission in unbiased dielectrics" [http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&v...](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eecs.umich.edu%2F~scr%2FFisherJAP2011.pdf&rct=j&q=%E2%80%9COptically- induced%20charge%20separation%20and%20terahertz%20emission%20in%20unbiased%20dielectrics%E2%80%9D&ei=g6vTTeiFG8_Tsga3mv3dAg&usg=AFQjCNHhDNA0v13PZ- bzYTGjzH_ksOUicA&cad=rja)

</comment><comment><USER3> This doesn't actually sound promising at all to me for solar power generation. In the original press release [1] they _speculate_ that they may _eventually_ reach 10% efficiency, which we _already have_. Given that the effect requires stupefyingly absurd amounts of light and that they're going to have to improve by _several_ orders of magnitude to harness this effect to do real work without causing the medium to explode due to a sudden influx of a huge amount of light, all to obtain an efficiency we already can, I do not see this as likely to be useful for solar power generation.

I criticize the need to try to attach every bit of research to the buzzword _de jour_. This is legitimately interesting on its own and the odds of it having some further use either scientifically or for some other engineering purpose is quite good. They've established a new boundary condition on some very venerable equations, which can't hardly help but be useful at some point. Tenuous connections to an application that it probably won't be useful for weaken the point, not strengthen it.

[1]: <http://ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases/story.php?id=8368>

</comment><comment><USER4> The authors argue that, in a dielectric medium, light can induce an electric dipole moment _in the direction of the light propagation_ by shifting the average location of atomic electrons in that direction. This moment becomes a means of storing energy, and they expect that heat loss would be much less than in traditional semiconductor solar cells.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is it just me or does the Smart Energy Show logo look like: [http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/Billy2600/512px- Apertur...](http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56/Billy2600/512px- Aperture_Sciencesvg.png) :D</comment>


Copenhagen Suborbitals Release Snowmix, an Open Source Video Mixer - <AUTHOR> http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/10/copenhagen-suborbitals-release-snowmix-an-open-source-video-mixer/

<comment><USER2> I'm the guy that initiated the Stream team and is leading it. Here are a few clarifications:

\- Technically the streamteam isn't a part of Copenhagen Suborbitals, but rather a part of the support organization Copenhagen Suborbitals Support. The streaming initiative was set in motion to capture more viewers and members of the support organization.

\- The primary reason we created this software wasn't that the videomixing needed to be done at sea - it's a bit more complicated than that. Launches are done in the Baltic Sea, 30-40 km. east of the Danish island Bornholm. In order to stream live we managed to get a wi-fi connection going from Bornholm to the mission control ship 40 kilometers away, but we couldn't reliably get enough bandwidth to stream all our camera positions to Bornholm. Furthermore internet connection on Bornholm is not very good. The result being that we needed to do the videomixing at sea. Only problem was that the broadcast studio, and thus the people that need to do the vdeomixing, were placed in Copenhagen. The result being this videomixer where we can send two streams from the launch site at sea: the livefeed and a mosaiq of available camera positions. The studio in Copenhagen can then remotely mix the livefeed based on the mosaiq using a webbased interface, or a commandline.

Here's a blogpost Peter (the author of snowmix) wrote about it: <http://raketvenner.dk/?p=689>

We have more great stuff in the works for next years launches including autonomus vessels with cameras, video overlays with live telemetry data from the rocket, and probably more great geeky stuff!

If you want to join us send me an e-mail, it's in my profile. Nobody gets paid but it's damn fun! And rockets!

</comment><comment><USER3> It looks pretty interesting to do the video mixing at the source.

I would just recommend the developers to use GitHub instead of <http://sourceforge.net/projects/snowmix/>. That would ease the contributions.</comment>


Ask HN: Website/idea listing inclusive hotel prices - <AUTHOR> All the regular travel websites I've seen for searching hotel rooms list prices without including taxes, and more importantly, resort fees.<p>How about if someone makes a website which displays, and can search/filter by the room+resort fee? It doesn't seem that hard. Even if the hotels don't like it, a website like this can still be monetized by ads and other affiliate programs. There's a hole in the market, and the implementation isn't even that hard. Why doesn't it exist? If nothing else, I think one could even make a browser plugin that at least changes the source page for listing. <comment><USER2> In Europe travel websites are no allowed to do that. They have to list final prices including any taxes, credit card fees and such. [http://europa.eu/rapid/press- release_IP-17-844_en.htm](http://europa.eu/rapid/press- release_IP-17-844_en.htm) A recent trick was to default to a co-branded credit card where any other payment method costs extra. Of course the co-branded credit card has a high annual fee so it was unlikely a user would choose that.

<comment><USER3> I recently booked on Hotwire in Europe and was charged an undisclosed "city tax" at the hotel. In the Hotwire fine print, it states: "Hotwire rates do not include special fees charged by hotels upon check-out. ... Customers will be required to pay these fees directly to the hotels at check-out time." ([https://www.hotwire.com/mobile/legal/restrictions](https://www.hotwire.com/mobile/legal/restrictions))

<comment><AUTHOR> That's really misleading wording if they're using it to charge "city tax". Fees upon checkout are usually based on any charged consumables, damage, room service etc. and it makes sense that those won't be included.

<comment><USER3> The portion I excluded clarifies that "special fees" include: energy charges, convention fees, resort fees, and parking fees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yeah, same with airlines and (hand)luggage. It's all very well seeing that the bargain flight will cost you £30, but when the new cabin baggage rules mean it's going to cost you another £12 on top, it's a little frustrating.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There are even websites that list the resort fees, such as [https://www.lasvegasjaunt.com/las-vegas-resort- fees-2018-gui...](https://www.lasvegasjaunt.com/las-vegas-resort- fees-2018-guide/)

It's also possible to scrape them from other travel search sites.</comment>


Avatars.io  - <AUTHOR> http://avatars.io/ <comment><USER2> Federated, open source alternative: [https://www.libravatar.org/](https://www.libravatar.org/)

</comment><comment><USER3> We tried using this a few months ago. Its a nice way to be able to setup a profile picture system quickly. The big problem with it though, and why we no longer use it, is that there is no way to use your own default image when a user hasn't logged in via a social network. The default image they force on you is horrific.

</comment><comment><USER4> And the advantage of this over gravatar is? The page mentions how to move from gravatar, but gives no reason why I should. Maybe a better API? As a user I don't care.

<comment><USER5> Gravatar now requires a Wordpress account for new users, which is an annoying extra step to ask users to do.

<comment><USER6> Wow I didn't know that. That is absolutely reason enough that gravitar should be replaced (from both end user and app perspective).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think this is great, and I'd use it. The marketing material needs some work though, took me a minute to understand what you were offering. Part of it is that I don't think Avatar is a widely known term for what many call a "Profile Picture". On XBox my avatar is a full 3D representation of a person, for example.

Somehow make it clear that is is a crazy-fast way to get user pictures on your site from a variety of sources.

<comment><USER8> Forum software has been using the term "avatar" this way for at least the past decade.

<comment><USER9> Sure, but that doesn't mean it's widely known enough to use in marketing.

I associate it with a 3D player model like in Second Life, not 2D photos in large social networks since they mostly don't use the term.

<comment><USER8> Gravatar has been able to pull it off.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The page doesn't explain at all why I should care, especially when compared to gravatar, or a client side library that uses multiple sources.

</comment><comment><USER11> Would really like to see some service that intelligently tries to pick an avatar based on Gravatar, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. if you just give it an email address.

</comment><comment><USER12> Does this fallback to gravatar? I'd be interested in a service that does something similar to Rapportive and just gives me a picture for an email from any source. Only a quarter of users have avatars [1] but when you add in linkedin, facebook &c that gets much higher.

[1] [http://euri.ca/2013/how-many-people-use- gravatar/index.html](http://euri.ca/2013/how-many-people-use- gravatar/index.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> This is an edge-case, but it makes me sad to see they don't disambiguate between numeric usernames and ID's on twitter. For example, [http://twitter.com/12345678](http://twitter.com/12345678) has a user ID of 9423832. I'm not sure if twitter still allows all-numeric handles or not, but I know there are active accounts that are confusing like this.

</comment><comment><USER14> I think? I like what you're trying to do here, but it's really unclear what you're offering.

If this is a way to pull profile pics from service, I tested twitter and facebook for my own account: no dice.

I'll check back again in a few days. Normally, I see awesome things come out of the Chute team.

</comment><comment><USER15> I liked [http://pavatar.com/](http://pavatar.com/) more

</comment><comment><USER16> The three badges (tweet bird, email and cloud) on the front page change color on hover, but are not clickable.

The page has a bunch of other usability/UI issues.

I also don't know what an avatar is in this context. Consider adding a more clear value proposition with an explanatory message.

<comment><USER17> This is so true. I was wondering if the service makes avatars for you (if so, what do they look like?), stores them for you (if so, how many at what cost?), or if it sorts them for you, finds them for you, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Tried emailing at email@example.com, and it was denied by Google's mail servers. May want to check into that.

</comment><comment><USER19> This is really good. I'm sick of Photoshopping avatars, using Gravatar or finding an image elsewhere. This is going into the bookmarks for sure.

</comment><comment><USER20> Well it looks like someone is using express and didnt feel like changing the favicon.

</comment><comment><USER21> I could definitely use this, very neat.

</comment><comment><USER22> The twitter social avatar doesnt work.

<comment><USER23> this

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This: "Every app needs avatars, we make it hassle-free"

doesn't actually explain why every app needs avatars, and or why I should use their service (hassle free isn't much of an argument these days, it's proclaimed everywhere). Saying it, doesn't make it so. Why does every app need avatars? Since when is it hard to host my own avatars? What's the overwhelming value proposition, such that I'm going to hand over a piece of my app?

Where's the sign-up button? The contact info? How much does it cost? Nowhere in top half of the site does it say anything about whether it's free or costs $x, you have to scroll to the very bottom to see that (no short-cut link to it either).

The site is seemingly designed backwards to how you would actually want to design a web service site.

</comment><comment><USER25> Looks awesome!</comment>


Introducing Electron Fiddle - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@felixrieseberg/introducing-electron-fiddle-1de2be1ba6e7 <comment><USER2> I downloaded this and it looks very interesting. But I'm unable to use it because of the dark theme.

I'm sorry, it's my fault, at the age of 66 I have visual limitations that make dark themes very uncomfortable. I just wish developers would not assume that everyone prefers or is able to use a dark theme. Not all of us can.

To really get comfortable with it, I would also want to be able to select a proportional font and tabs instead of two-space indents. But that can wait; a light theme option would be a good start.

<comment><USER3> > I'm sorry, it's my fault

I assume you're being sarcastic here. Accessibility issues like this are clearly the fault of an industry that hires mostly twenty-somethings with perfect vision, then doesn't train them in this important area.

And really, why does every app need its own theme or color scheme anyway? Sure, each company likes having its own brand. But do the _users_ like this? I think that every app using the OS-supplied theme is good not just for accessibility, but for a consistent, distraction-free user experience. But then, I'm visually impaired myself, so that skews my perception, and I probably don't understand what the sighted masses like.

<comment><USER4> You actually have to pay money to subscribe to Unity3D Pro to get the dark color scheme -- it's disabled in the free version.

And people actually seem to care passionately about it, on both sides of the issue, for many different reasons!

[https://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/editor-dark-skin- th...](https://feedback.unity3d.com/suggestions/editor-dark-skin-theme-in- free-)

[https://forum.unity.com/threads/dark-theme-pro-only- seriousl...](https://forum.unity.com/threads/dark-theme-pro-only- seriously.488516/)

<comment><USER5> I care passionately that my personal preferences about light/dark shouldn't be forced on other people with different preferences.

<comment><USER4> And other people act like pixels are a zero sum game, so when one pixel lightens, another darkens. And then you have the extremely low contrast people who want to redistribute all the brightness.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting. But what I think makes; jsFiddle, Glitch and CodePen so popular, is that you can go to any computer with a browser and run the code, without installing an environment.

To run this on any machine you would need to download the Electron Fiddle environment and compile the Electron app binary every time... Very similar to normal development.

So maybe electron just isn't as convenient for developing, compared to the browser technologies that the article compares it to...

<comment><USER7> I tend to disagree here. I think a few major things Electron Fiddle will bring to the table are:

      - the ability to easily get Electron help on StackOverflow, etc. by sharing the exact code you're running
      - one click (or close to it) examples of every single Electron API (I often find examples jsfiddles to be a much faster way to learn how to use a new API than digging through documentation)
      - possibly making it easier for people who are new to coding to get their feet wet in programming a desktop app without having to open a terminal. This is especially true if they can start with a working app and just tweak small things and see their tweaks reflected in the running app.

All people are different, of course, but my biggest use cases of jsfiddle are using examples to learn how to use new frameworks. I'm excited to see the same thing for Electron apps!

<comment><USER2> Readable version of your bullet points:

\- the ability to easily get Electron help on StackOverflow, etc. by sharing the exact code you're running

\- one click (or close to it) examples of every single Electron API (I often find examples jsfiddles to be a much faster way to learn how to use a new API than digging through documentation)

\- possibly making it easier for people who are new to coding to get their feet wet in programming a desktop app without having to open a terminal. This is especially true if they can start with a working app and just tweak small things and see their tweaks reflected in the running app.

(Don't use two space indents to force code style except for code samples.)

<comment><USER8> Thanks for pasting it as normal text. Code style for textual content is especially bad on mobile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Over the past four years, I have introduced thousands of developers to > Electron.

Then stop it!

</comment><comment><USER4> I see that Electron v3.0.0-beta.4 is available.

What's new in Electron version 3, and how stable is it? Is there a good higher level summary than the release notes, and could somebody please describe what are the significant differences between version 2 and version 3, and how far along and mature is version 3?

<comment><USER10> Took me a few seconds longer to find it than I expected:

[https://electronjs.org/releases](https://electronjs.org/releases)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Several hundred megabytes for not-even-an-IDE is certainly not the world's tiniest open-source violin.

</comment><comment><USER12> _It does so thanks to electron-forge, allowing you to package your Fiddle as an app for Windows, macOS, or Linux._

How useful is this feature? I mostly do webdevelopment though.

</comment><comment><USER13> Great, another way to create huge, slow, bloated "native" apps.

It confuses me that slack, with their hundreds of developers, cannot build a native piece of software that doesn't require 10+ seconds to init.

</comment><comment><USER14> The project, minus the blogspam: [https://github.com/electron/fiddle](https://github.com/electron/fiddle)

<comment><USER15> How is that "blog spam" if it's the original source? Blog spam is if someone writes an article about another source to get traffic instead of the original source imo.

<comment><USER16> The content isn't the spam. The decoration around it is (aka the medium platform).

<comment><USER17> I don't particularly like Medium either, but deciding that articles should be ignored because of the author's choice of hosting platform is silly, as long as it's not behind a paywall or login wall (e.g. Facebook). If the content can stand on it's own, who cares how it's hosted?

<comment><USER18> Yeah, but Medium is bringing the login wall to my face and asking me, in an (IMO) obnoxious way, to pass to the other side of the wall, again and again.

No biggie, I guess, but it adds up.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


In memory of Blue - <AUTHOR> http://www.saddlebackleather.com/37-in-memory-of-blue

<comment><USER2> They make awesome briefcases, btw. I use mine daily. Love it. I even like the backback function. Just this evening I put my macbook and Learning Python in there, with plenty of room to spare for the charger, two 12-oz cans, a stethoscope, otoscope/ophthalmoscope combo, earbuds in their case, and two dozen or so miscellaneous bits of stuff, including copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Oh, and I'm using slim briefcase, the "laptop bag" [http://www.saddlebackleather.com/categories/87-Laptop- Bags/p...](http://www.saddlebackleather.com/categories/87-Laptop- Bags/products/2172-Leather-Briefcase-Thin-Chestnut)

edit: why the downvotes? Seriously, I'm pretty sure Dave and Blue would both appreciate someone talking up their bags at any opportunity. They're awesome.

<comment><USER3> I also have one. Do you like the leather strap? I ended up swapping mine with a nylon strap from another bag. It always seemed to be in the way when I wasn't wearing it, and I was afraid of creasing the leather.

<comment><USER2> I keep it in backpack configuration. I'm tall enough that it doesn't drag on the ground and I find it useful in random, unforseen circumstances. Like two or three times a week the kids want to ride their bikes down to the park, which is a very exploratory park, so I throw a book in there, maybe a laptop, and ride with the kids. Plus I'm military and mine's brown, so, in uniform, I have to hand-carry it anyway. I thought about getting a black one for this very reason, but even then, I'm left-handed, and returning salutes is awkward that way, so I end up hand-carrying regardless of bag color.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You're my boy, Blue! You're my boy.

</comment><comment><USER5> Oh, damnit, I just watched "Wall-E" and now this.

Excuse me, I got some dust in my eyes.</comment>


NGINX has a bug-tracker - <AUTHOR> http://trac.nginx.org/nginx

<comment><USER2> Is this new, or unusual? Not disparaging the submission, just wondering why.

<comment><AUTHOR> There was no bug tracker for nginx apart from the mailing lists up until 8 days ago :-) That's a pretty good and important addition for the project to engage with the community in my opinion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I always assumed it didn't need one since it had no bugs ;)</comment>


Deceptively Bright, in an Up and Coming Area - <AUTHOR> https://literaryreview.co.uk/deceptively-bright-in-an-up-coming-area <comment><USER2> Interesting related read:

"The Surprisingly Solid Mathematical Case of the Tin Foil Hat Gun Prepper"

[https://medium.com/s/story/the-surprisingly-solid- mathematic...](https://medium.com/s/story/the-surprisingly-solid-mathematical- case-of-the-tin-foil-hat-gun-prepper-15fce7d10437)

</comment><comment><USER3> TIL[1] "gun thy neighbor" was a searchable 1960's phrase.

[http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,8726...](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,872694-1,00.html)

[http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,8726...](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,872694-2,00.html)

The Rev. Hugh Saussy drew the same (theological if not practical) conclusions as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Willems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Willems)

[1] Three-days-ago I Learned: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23712008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23712008)</comment>


Founder came back after 8 years to rewrite Flash photo editor in Canvas/WebGL - <AUTHOR> http://pixlr.com/e <comment><AUTHOR> The service was grown to over 60 million users back in ~2012 and got aquired by Autodesk. After some years most, if not all people working with the product was reassigned and or left. Still with millions of weekly users but no one that cared.

Autodesk sold it for near to nothing and the new owners contacted me (org founder) and asked me if I wanted to get involved somehow. So we build a new product from scratch since the original app was 100% Flash and we are just month away from a completely browser block :)

<comment><USER2> it'd be interesting to know about the tech behind this rewrite. E.g., what language/stack, how did you do it (or any frameworks of interest used), and what, if any, did you learn from the flash version that helped in this rewrite?

<comment><AUTHOR> Its 99% Typescript and we don't use any premade js frameworks, everything was written from scratch (except for some font loader and zip), ui, rendering, webgl filters etc etc.

All the knowledge of how Photo Editing works came out of building the original products back in the day, there is more information about the field today to be found written online but much is still secrets kept at a few companies.

The browsers is really a shitty environment to be writing this kind of apps in, performances is a struggle in every step :)

<comment><USER3> I've spent years building Flash and Flex apps. Some really complex ones. Adobe had this big bets in RIAs (Rich Internet Applications). Turns out RIAs are simply SPA (Single Page Applications) now.

Typescript is really nice and close to Actionscript3. I'm glad Flash died.

The new open ecosystem with tc39 and wc3 is pretty awesome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Context for those who don't know what going on:

Pixlr was (well, still is) a flash-based webapp that allows you to edit images in your browsers, and apparently had ~60 Million users back in 2012. It was sold to Autodesk, they didn't do much with it. Then Autodesk sold it to new owners, who invited the original founder to come and work on it, and as a result, this canvas/WebGL version was launched.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hi, I am the creator of [https://www.Photopea.com](https://www.Photopea.com) and I am a bit sad, that you did not start to work on it earlier. Wish you good luck! :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Ivan, still lots of fun to move pixels around :)

<comment><USER5> You are welcome :) BTW. you can open Pixlr PXD files in Photopea (including text layers, layer styles, save them as PSD, etc)

Actually, it is the 19th most frequent format of files opened in Photopea :) [https://twitter.com/photopeacom/status/1172183966125871105](https://twitter.com/photopeacom/status/1172183966125871105)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can anybody name a successful autodesk acquisition? Their record seems quite embarrassing, filled with lots of acquisitions of unrelated tech for inflated prices that they ultimately shut down.

(No offense meant to the companies being acquired, they're usually great. Autodesk is the one who seems to screw everything up.)

<comment><USER7> It's extremely hard for large companies acquiring smaller ones to do it well.

Kind of interesting to look through these and wonder what (if anything) survived:

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

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

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Microsoft)

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_IBM)

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Cisco_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Cisco_Systems)

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Electr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Electronic_Arts)

<comment><USER8> I'm still impressed that Java appears to be getting better faster under Oracle than it did in the Sun days. I mean, Oracle! How?

<comment><USER9> Something that many keep forgeting with their Oracle hate, is that Oracle has been part of the Java eco-system since the early days.

They did the NC Java station alongside Sun, were the first RDMS to support Java stored procedures, ported their installers and GUI tooling to Java, created their own JVM, later bought BEA, and created their own JEE implementation, among other Java frameworks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Far out. A javascript photo editor running in a browser that feels faster than a native application like the Gimp. What an extraordinary achievement.

But it's not just the underlying speed. It's GUI interface design is simply beautiful. It's also intuitive, and discoverable. God how I wish other young designers would follow this example.

I suspect you are going to struggle commercially against "free" from the likes of Gimp unless you can survive on advertising revenue, but you've done well so far - bought out, run into the ground, sold back for pennies. It doesn't get much better than that. Given the quality of this product who knows, it may happen again.

I wish you and your product the best of luck - you deserve it.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm the founder of Polarr , [https://photoeditor.polarr.co](https://photoeditor.polarr.co) , if anyone wants to hack Canvas/WebGL based photo editor with a full team of Canvas/WebGL hackers, DM me!

</comment><comment><USER12> Is there a good vector graphic version of this that folks might recommend? I'm thinking in particular of when you need to do some quick work on (data- related) graphs.

<comment><USER13> I worked on this toy project for a while, but it's not nearly as complete as these photo editors

[https://ballpoint.io/about](https://ballpoint.io/about)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was randomly just looking for a site to do online photoshop yesterday and abandoned this one due to the flash requirement.

<comment><USER15> In case you are still looking, I use [https://www.photopea.com/](https://www.photopea.com/) from time to time for stuff

<comment><USER16> This one is awesome too!

Thank you for sharing this!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I forgot about Pixlr. I have many fond memories of making bad pixel art on it. It really was a step above all the other photo-editing webapps available at the time.

</comment><comment><USER18> Editor looks great, very performant! Is there a way to integrate this in an existing webapp? E.g. open pixlr in a new window, do some edits, get the asset back?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Yes it support the same api as the old ones, will update the site with more info when we leave beta in January. Simple load and post with the image asset.

<comment><USER18> Super neat, will check it out, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> How are the fast pixel-wise operations (color transformations, alpha composition, etc) coded? Is this something that WebGL or Canvas supports?

<comment><USER20> 1\. Adobe is/was on the standards groups and stnadardised all the photoshop blend modes into browsers a long long time ago.

2\. Alpha composition? Are you sure that's what you mean? we've had that universally in browsers since IE7.

I am continually stunned at how little most developers know of what browsers are capable of.

<comment><USER19> > I am continually stunned at how little most developers know of what browsers > are capable of.

I guess it's because developers don't always need to know everything.

The browser platform has turned native computational capabilities into a "hodge podge" of functionalities that a developer needs to pick from, so programming becomes more like shopping than like building things. Not every developer likes that mindset.

<comment><USER20> Really? the only place you wouldn't find that is in Assembly language on baremetal. Even C has platform libraries and system calls. I haven't seen a more dithered and inconsistent "hodge podge" than when trying to get something as simple as a timer working consistently across all the Unix-likes.

Browsers are just a platform like any other, you work with the platform capabilities the OS or platform gives you. what alternative do you think there is?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Can you tell us how much effort it was to build this? Either in hours or dollars?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's been better part of a year for two people team (me and my brother) to build this product. We released one product first we called x with a subset of features to get code out the door.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Looking at the javascript file... Why are all variable names hex strings like _0x56fb578a ?

Is this some debug mode of a minifier? Is it supposed to make reverse engineering harder? (it seems to make it easier to me IMO)

<comment><USER22> It's obfuscated to protect their source code. [https://github.com/javascript- obfuscator/javascript-obfuscat...](https://github.com/javascript- obfuscator/javascript-obfuscator)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Extremely curious to see a blog post explaining the story behind rewriting the editor in Canvas/GL.

</comment><comment><USER24> And it works on my phone now?!

<comment><AUTHOR> It's just the beta for desktop, phone ui will be released in a few weeks. A dedicated version is made for smaller screens and touch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> @poniko How did you convert typescript into some hex strings js file?

</comment><comment><USER26> This is great! Any plans for apple pencil or wacom support?

</comment><comment><USER16> Wow! That's just awesome!

</comment><comment><USER27> Would be awesome if there was more of a story behind this. Clicking the link just leaves me scratching my head.

Even with the comments it isn't clear what the story is (at least at time of 15 comments)

</comment><comment><USER4> @mods: Perhaps rename the submission to "Pixlr founder returns after 8 years to rewrite web-based photo editor interface in canvas/WebGL" to avoid confusion.

<comment><USER28> I replaced "photoshop" with "photo editor" above. I don't see anything wrong with the title otherwise. The project creator wrote it, so it isn't editorializing.

<comment><USER29> This was one of the few times I was genuinely confused by a link on HN. I didn't realize there was an author exception to the title rules and I'm not sure there should be.

Its not the end of the world but one of the things I like best about HN is trustworthy titles. This erodes that.

Just my 2 Canadian cents.

<comment><USER28> I don't see what's untrustworthy about the title here. If it were misleading we'd change it, but it doesn't seem misleading to me.

It's important that HN's front page not be completely predictable, so we allow variations sometimes. The rules here are called guidelines for that reason. HN is a spirit of the law place, not a letter of the law place, and the spirit is curiosity.

<comment><USER29> I don't think its misleading in a malicious way. But it is misleading in the sense that the title did not at all describe the ultimate content. I would not have clicked if I knew where it lead. The confused comments here show I'm not the only one.

The actual story behind this is quite interesting. I wish there was a blog post with more details. Perhaps if they were forced to use proper titles we might have got that.

I don't argue with your authority to vary the rules. I just wanted to provide feedback.

<comment><USER28> Appreciated! And you make a great point that a blog post with the story would be better. At least the author did include a bit of that in the thread here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Can someone give context to this please? It leads to an image editor but no explanation of how a founder is coming back to rewrite flash.

<comment><USER31> The title is confusing. The image editor was previously written in Flash; the founder rewrote it in WebGL/Canvas.

<comment><USER30> OK I thought someone had implemented Flash in WebGL.

<comment><USER32> Someone did; that someone is Adobe. Adobe Animate (previously known as Flash) can export JS code that uses a canvas to draw the animation. It has been this way for years.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why So Many Americans Are Turning to Buddhism - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/buddhism-meditation-anxiety-therapy/584308/ <comment><USER2> "'Buddhism admits that suffering is inevitable,' says Daniel Sanchez, a 24-year-old in New Jersey."

Not -permanently- inevitable, because there's a Way:

"The third Noble Truth, however, states that suffering has an end, and the fourth offers the means to that end: the Eight-Fold Path and the Middle Way."

[https://asiasociety.org/education/origins- buddhism](https://asiasociety.org/education/origins-buddhism)</comment>


Dropbox is unavailable  - <AUTHOR> https://www.dropbox.com/

<comment><USER2> Not here.

</comment><comment><USER3> There seems to be an intermittent problem with Amazon's AWS. I tried to look at some slides on both slideshare and speakerdeck and neither could fetch stuff from Amazon.</comment>


Ask HN: How does one learn high load? - <AUTHOR> If I, as a recent graduate and web developer, decided to learn how to build high load systems, how would I do it?<p>It seems that you can only learn how to make high load systems when working in a company that builds them. I wonder if it's possible to enter that field on one's own. <comment><USER2> One option would be building some systems and testing them. I suspect that that's a lot of what a professional working with high load systems does in order to avoid problems before they happen.

Good luck.</comment>


Why can't Cross-Origin request not share cookies instead of denying the request? - <AUTHOR> I'm working on a simple SPA website that consumes a REST API from another website. Because this site doesn't have a policy to allow CORS requests, I need to use a proxy, however, the company I work for blocks most of them, the ones I found to work have a limit on the number of requests which is a bummer, and I didn't want to host my own as this should've just a simple frontend app.
I understand why CORS policies are needed, you can't simply share cookies with everyone that sends a request from your browser to a given host.
However, instead of completely blocking the request, why can't browsers simply don't share such cookies and other info in those cases where CORS applies? (which is the result I get if I send this request from a backend). <comment><USER2> In principle, I think that all or almost all CSRF could be prevented with just 'samesite' cookies and careful engineering.

In practice, the same origin policy is a very good 'safe default' for the long tail of sited that for whatever reason don't have proper CSRF mitigation set up.

In a broader sense, CORS also lets sites owner 'forbid' requests from any JavaScript that they don't control, which allows them to narrow the scope of possible attack vectors.

I'm sure this is an incomplete answer though; I'm curious what other people think.</comment>


Ask HN: What's your favorite TED Talk? - <AUTHOR> I've been going through the thread from about a year and a half ago that has a myriad of great TED talks, watching one or two of them every few nights.  (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442022)
I'm starting to run out on that thread, and I'd love to get a good compilation going that includes some from the past 2 conferences.
So, HN - what are you favorite TED talks?  I'll get it started with these: Sir Ken's Robinson's talk on nurturing creativity in education (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html) and Inspiring Action through leadership (http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html) <comment><USER2> Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world: [http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_ca...](http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html)

This talk is not about hallucinogenic mushrooms. It really opened my eyes to the awesome potential of fungi, and how this potential is largely ignored because of the connotation to "hippy" and "drugs." Fungi is just generally misunderstood. I was absolutely amazed at how thorough these clean-up jobs were, at how well the fungi consumed, not only the waste, but the toxins in the waste.

Stamets recently wrote his fungi take to cleaning oil spills: <http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/petroleum_problem.html>

<comment><USER3> I have to concur in a comment here because this TED talk was so mind blowing for me I feel I need to write down my opinions about it somewhere. The way this guy talks about mushrooms is extremely earnest and its clear he's both incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about his field. It's almost as though he can't get the information out of his mouth and into the crowd fast enough, and what's more is that he speaks like he has discovered and is revealing for the first time the world's most incredible secrets - which in a way he is. It's not over dramatic, just genuine and awesome. Watch this video!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Mike Rowe celebrates dirty jobs: [http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.htm...](http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.html)

A surprisingly powerful ode to people who just do the work. Our jobs may not be dirty but the lessons are still interesting and applicable; connecting to startups isn't that hard.

I like many of the other linked talks too, but as of my writing this one was not posted.

<comment><USER5> That was fantastic, and I don't think I would have ever come across it otherwise.

Thank you.

<comment><USER6> I didn't like it. Rowe has a disingenuously self-deprecating speaking style, where he says again and again how much he "got wrong", but the subtext is how smart he is for realizing certain things that the rest of us supposedly haven't. And his big insight is that for every Steve Jobs, we need a bunch of workers to actually build the iPods? Wow, golly.

I also hate the verbal tic he demonstrates, which is becoming depressingly common, of saying "right" after every few sentences in a story. For example: "I was working on a crab boat, right? And this big wave comes over the side, right?" Etc. It's a lazy way of trying to psychologically condition the audience into agreeing with you without actually doing the hard rhetorical work of convincing them. Drives me nuts.

<comment><USER7> Wow. I'm almost done watching iti right now, and didn't catch him saying 'right?' at all; maybe it happens in the earlier part, but in the last few minutes, none at all. If he's saying it, I hardly think it's meant as some subtle pysch trick.

Nor did I get the feeling that his claims of being wrong was in any way disingenuous. At worst it's a ploy to structure his talk.

Every TED talk works off the assumption that the speaker has some insight worth sharing with the audience, presumably non-obvious or non-trivial realizations, so _of course_ he's going to try say something worth thinking about. There's nothing subtext about it; it's the whole point of being on stage.

My takeaway was not simply "for every Steve Jobs, we need a bunch of workers to actually build the iPods", but that there are a lot of seemingly oddball jobs done by happy people who did not bother to "follow their bliss", that conventional wisdom on what work might make you happy or how work should be approached might very well be wrong, and that plain old labor should not be looked down on.

<comment><USER6> I thought the notion that plain old labor can be a more fulfilling path than following your dreams was a tacked-on message designed to help him wrap up his talk. But in fact, it's a naive, perhaps even willfully misleading suggestion.

The examples Rowe used to back up this idea were unlikely mavericks who managed to turn undesirable or unremarkable jobs into fantastically successful businesses. Those people are just as rare, if not more so, as those who find success by "following their dreams".

Ordinary workers aren't millionaire entrepreneurs; they're janitors, or sewer workers, or Foxconn assembly line drones. Yet that's what "real work" looks like. And I notice Rowe isn't quitting his job as a TV show personality in favor of joining the road crews who "whistle while they work."

The best thing I can say about Rowe is that he ranks up there with Malcolm Gladwell in his ability to throw around a bunch of unrelated contentions and anecdotes and pretend to tie them all together with a facile and unsubstantiated thesis.

<comment><USER8> >The best thing I can say about Rowe is that he ranks up there with Malcolm Gladwell in his ability to throw around a bunch of unrelated contentions and anecdotes and pretend to tie them all together with a facile and unsubstantiated thesis.

I think that's unfair to Rowe. He seems quite genuinely to believe two things:

1) The manual and/or menial labor required to keep society working is unfairly maligned, and this can become a problem if no one is willing to do it because it's not respected,

and

2) During his show he has met people who are perfectly happy doing these jobs, so it IS entirely possible to be happy doing them.

I agree that the message felt a bit tacked on in that talk, but it is genuine. He seems to be dedicating himself to spreading that message (see <http://www.mikeroweworks.com/>) - I think he tried to pick the most interesting examples he could find for this talk, which turned out to be atypical, but most of the people he meets on his show are far from millionaire entrepreneurs.

I say it's unfair to Rowe because Malcolm Gladwell's theses are more pop science for entertainment. I don't think Rowe ever claims any kind of scientific method or results - he is more campaigning for his beliefs and trying to cause what he sees as necessary change in society.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Hans Rosling with the best stats you've ever seen:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_y...](http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html)

</comment><comment><USER10> Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight [http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html)

A neuroscientist that suffered from a stroke talked about the experience and the interesting conclusion that came from it.

<comment><USER11> This is one of those talks you either love or hate. I was surprised to see it was one of the highest rated TED talks (on another site) because for some reason I found it rather irritating.

<comment><USER12> What I find irritating is that a neuroscientist would be so easily drawn into mysterious, magical thinking about what was going on in her head.

Of course, I suppose I might see things differently if a blood clot turned half of my brain off for a while.

<comment><USER13> It seems likely that most people would see things differently were they to have her experience. I like the talk, but I understand why some people do not. But I would not say she was "so easily" drawn into mysterious or magical thinking. She was drawn into it by a massive, life-changing medical event that attacked and damaged the organ which creates her mind. I think she's using the only words, metaphors, and ideas she has available to describe what is probably indescribable at base.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> [http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind...](http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html) ("Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between celebral tissue and the mind, using three startling delusions as examples. .. Dr Ramachandran is the author of the author of Phantoms in the Brain (the basis for a Nova special), A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness and The Man with the Phantom Twin: Adventures in the Neuroscience of the Human Brain")

Very hacker like, brilliant, work.

<comment><USER15> This is also my favorite TED talk. Ramachandran has come up with some clever ways to study and heal the brain. His mirror box therapy is not only simple and effective, but his prerequisite theory was accurate yet initially based on a tiny amount of evidence.

Here's a short talk by Ramachandran on mirror neurons: [http://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_sh...](http://www.ted.com/talks/vs_ramachandran_the_neurons_that_shaped_civilization.html)

<comment><USER16> The mirror neurons talk is awesome - I saw it several months ago - thanks for reminding me about it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I can't believe no one has mentioned Ken Robinson's talk yet!

[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html)

Brilliant (and funny) talk about how schools suck the creativity out of students, but also how this _doesn't_ have to be the case. My favorite TED Talk of all time.

<comment><USER18> Well. The author had mentioned it himself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The only TED talk that has ever brought tears to my eyes - Jamie Oliver's: <http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_oliver.html>

<comment><USER20> I love Jamie Oliver and highly recommend his show Food Revolution. It's 100x more moving than his talk.

(just tried to find it on Hulu and it's not there, wish I could provide a DL)

<comment><USER21> It's on ABC's website:

<http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> My Favorite Ted Talk is Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation. <http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html>

<comment><USER23> It's a good talk, but if you go read the research he's citing, he took a great deal of liberties. :-|

<comment><USER24> Where can I find the research and the liberties he used?

I really liked the RSA drawed-up version of the talk, and I thought it was based on real hard science..

<comment><USER23> scholar.google, search for the authors names he cites

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I don't know if they're my _favorite_ , but Rory Sutherland's two are excellent, and I think well worth watching especially if you ever think you might be trying to sell something to someone.

Life lessons from an ad man: ([http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_a...](http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man.html))

Sweat the small stuff: ([http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_sweat_the_small_stu...](http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_sweat_the_small_stuff.html))

<comment><USER26> It seems to me that the word for the fourth quadrant in his latter talk is: "hacking".

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Great question. It's tough for me to single out just one favorite, though this one has had a large impact on me. It's from Dan Buettner on his study of Blue Zones and why inhabitants regularly live long lives:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100....](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html)

This talk from Robert Full also had an impact, because it reminded me to look at unrelated fields for inspiration & solutions, like as the field of biology:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_learning_from_the_gecko...](http://www.ted.com/talks/robert_full_learning_from_the_gecko_s_tail.html)

On a side note, an exercise I've had fun doing with friends lately is to ask them who among our own social circles we would like to see speak, if we held our own TED talk. And what topics we would like to speak about ourselves. It has spurned a lot of interesting discussions amongst ourselves.

</comment><comment><USER28> I enjoyed Daniel Kahneman on "The riddle of experience vs memory", which is about the ways people structure their lives for experiences they think they will enjoy remembering, rather than things they'd necessarily enjoy doing at the time. There's also a good anecdote about how making a colonoscopy slightly more unpleasant cam leave the patient with a more favorable recollection.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_exper...](http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html)

</comment><comment><USER29> Liz Gilbert's talk on Creative Genius (<http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html>) is really underrated. Not only does it cover a fascinating subject, it's also a beautifully done speech. Gilbert skims across the surface of many subjects, and in the final few minutes ties it all together into one cohesive whole. Poignant, thoughtful, and entertaining - as all speeches should aspire to be.

</comment><comment><USER30> The intelligence of crows has always been my favorite. Joshua Klein talks about a cleaver way to create a mutually beneficial relationship with a species usually considered to be a pest.

[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intel...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html)

</comment><comment><USER31> Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strang...](http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html)

</comment><comment><USER32> I liked (in the order they show up in my del.icio.us stream):

* Dan Buettner How to live to be 100 <http://blog.ted.com/2010/01/how_to_live_to.php>

* Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation <http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html>

* Kamal Meattle on how to grow fresh air [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_g...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kamal_meattle_on_how_to_grow_your_own_fresh_air.html)

* Ian Dunbar on dog-friendly dog training [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ian_dunbar_on_dog_friendl...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ian_dunbar_on_dog_friendly_dog_training.html)

* Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wr...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html)

* Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_be...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html)

* Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_ki...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html)

* Alan Russell on regenerating our bodies [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/alan_russell_on_regenerat...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/alan_russell_on_regenerating_our_bodies.html)

* Robert Lang folds way-new origami [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html)

* John Maeda: Simplicity patterns <http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/172/>

Somehow I never bookmarked

* Dan Gilbert's talks <http://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_gilbert.html>

* Dan Ariely's talks <http://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_ariely.html>

Which I've now remedied

There was also one about regenerating local ecosystems that I somehow can't seem to find right now.

</comment><comment><USER33> My best is The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie.

She was able to articulate the feeling that stereotyped people have. Unfortunately, we are all guilty in some way knowingly or unknowingly. It is a must watch.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story.html)

</comment><comment><USER34> Sheila Patek on the fastest animal on Earth. One thing a particularily like about this talk is that it seems she doesn't realize how captivating she is: [http://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_patek_clocks_the_fastest_ani...](http://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_patek_clocks_the_fastest_animals.html)

</comment><comment><USER35> Always liked Thomas Barnett's talk on the Pentagon's new map for peace. Interesting ideas. Delivers with some humor.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/thomas_barnett_draws_a_new...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/thomas_barnett_draws_a_new_map_for_peace.html)

<comment><USER36> That was great, thanks.

Asides from being very funny, I have never heard of a force like the two- sided, Leviathian / SysAdmin one that he describes.

Attributing some of the failure in Iraq, namely the persistent Leviathian force and the non-existant SysAdmin force is very compelling, to say the least.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I really like Sherwin Nuland's talk on electroshock therapy: [http://www.ted.com/talks/sherwin_nuland_on_electroshock_ther...](http://www.ted.com/talks/sherwin_nuland_on_electroshock_therapy.html)

I've never seen anyone write about this talk, but it is intensely personal story of his depression and recovery through electroshock therapy.

</comment><comment><USER18> Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology.Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm- shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all. [http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/pranav_mistry_the_thrillin...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html)

<comment><USER2> SixthSense is the most promising system of augmenting reality I have seen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> I have liked many of the TED talks, can't point out a single favorite.

This is one I saw recently - It's good. And quite relevant to entrepreneurs - [http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_herold_let_s_raise_kids_to_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_herold_let_s_raise_kids_to_be_entrepreneurs.html)

</comment><comment><USER39> I've always found the talk "Adam Savage's Obsessions" to be inspiring. His eye for detail and relentless obsession for getting things right are contagious.

[http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions....](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions.html)

<comment><USER40> For me, it's a toss up between Adam's talk and Mike Rowe's talk.

The best part about Adam is his amazing energy and enthusiasm for everything he does.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Results of and a link to Google spreadsheet of TED talks in order of "engagement". [http://blog.postrank.com/2010/05/and-the-most-engaging- ted-t...](http://blog.postrank.com/2010/05/and-the-most-engaging-ted-talk-is/)

<comment><USER42> The code that was used to create the spreadsheet: <http://gist.github.com/391312>

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Gary Flake: is Pivot a turning point for web exploration? <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT_x9s67yWA>

Because it illustrates _why_ metadata is important, necessary, and its power.

</comment><comment><USER44> Hands down the all time best, Richard Dawkins on our "queer" universe:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_our_queer_univer...](http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_our_queer_universe.html)

Aubrey de Grey on aging is also pretty good:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_ag...](http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html)

</comment><comment><USER45> I enjoyed all three of Juan Enriquez's talks, Kevin Kelly on how technology evolves and Ray Kurzweil on how technology will transform us. Together, those 5 talks greatly changed the way I view the world.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_wants_to_grow_energy....](http://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_wants_to_grow_energy.html) [http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_how_technology_evolv...](http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_how_technology_evolves.html) [http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ray_kurzweil_on_how_techno...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ray_kurzweil_on_how_technology_will_transform_us.html)

</comment><comment><USER46> My favourite is probably Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice: [http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_the_para...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html)

</comment><comment><USER47> Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different [http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_differen...](http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_different.html)

I just think this is the way we should look at the world

</comment><comment><USER48> Benjamin Zander on classical music and shining eyes :) [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html)

And a rather controversial but spectacular idea by Wubbo Ockels on time as a creation of human mind as a response to gravity [http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2009/video-wubbo-ockels-on- time...](http://www.tedxamsterdam.com/2009/video-wubbo-ockels-on-time-and- gravity/)

</comment><comment><USER49> Brian Cox [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdwOlk6HIVc&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdwOlk6HIVc&feature=player_embedded)

</comment><comment><USER50> Fascinating, this post acts as an aggregator for the best TED talks from the point of view of my favorite community of intelectuals: hackernews =)

</comment><comment><USER21> I used to keep a txt file of my favorite TED Talks. A while ago my mom was having issues with iWeb so I used my TED list as test content in order to trouble shoot. It's just links with some notes about why I liked it or what made it memorable for me but I still reference it every now and then when I'm in need of inspiration.

<http://chrisovercash.com>

</comment><comment><USER51> Daniel Gilbert asks, Why are we happy? in this TED talk. [http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html)

He also did a great interview on the Colbert Report that never fails to crack me up.

</comment><comment><USER52> [http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html)

Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web

</comment><comment><USER53> Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life: [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ben_dunlap_talks_about_a_...](http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ben_dunlap_talks_about_a_passionate_life.html)

"This is what I'm passionate about. It is precisely this. It is this inextinguishable, undaunted appetite for learning and experience, no matter how risible, no matter how esoteric, no matter how seditious it might seem."

</comment><comment><USER54> Matthieu Ricard - Habits of Happiness [http://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_ha...](http://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness.html)

"What is happiness, and how can we all get some? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says we can train our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment."

</comment><comment><USER50> My favorite one is definitely Simon Sinek's talk on 'How great leaders inspire action'.

If you want to see a collection of inspiring videos on social entrepreneurship you can visit this site:

[http://trendguardian.blogspot.com/search/label/Social%20Entr...](http://trendguardian.blogspot.com/search/label/Social%20Entrepreneurship)

</comment><comment><USER55> Ben Zander (conductor of the Boston Philharmonic) gives an amazing presentation on "Music and Passion." It is my favorite TED talk besides Simon Sinek's, which you mentioned.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passio...](http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html)

</comment><comment><USER56> Clifford Stoll is mine.

<comment><USER57> "And then there's this thing! ... but I don't want to talk about that today..."

<comment><USER56> "Those of you who are physicists, I hear you rolling your eyes..."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> I like talks by scientists who talk about their jobs. This one is especially captivating for me:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_saxe_how_brains_make_moral_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_saxe_how_brains_make_moral_judgments.html)

I also like answers to questions after this talk.

</comment><comment><USER59> There are a lot of good ones, but my favorite is still Erin McKean's talk about dictionaries:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/erin_mckean_redefines_the_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html)

</comment><comment><USER60> Easily my favorite is Dean Kamen's "The emotion behind invention." He has at least two TED talks, this is his longer, more complete one.

<http://blog.ted.com/2010/04/the_emotion_beh.php>

</comment><comment><USER61> Personally, my favorite TED talk is David Eggers' TED wish [http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wis...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html)

</comment><comment><USER62> There are a couple the deal with choice and happiness that I found very enlightening. Matthieu Ricard's may be one of them, and was already mentioned. There is at least one other and maybe more on that general subject though.

</comment><comment><USER63> My most recent favorite:

Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors: [http://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_con...](http://www.ted.com/talks/itay_talgam_lead_like_the_great_conductors.html)

</comment><comment><USER64> Carolyn Porco about the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn: [http://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn.ht...](http://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn.html)

Really passionate.

</comment><comment><USER65> I really like Elisabeth Pisani's talk on HIV prevention and rationality. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=442022>

</comment><comment><USER66> I like Mark Roth's talk on suspended animation.

<comment><USER67> For those who want to see it: <http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_roth_suspended_animation.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> this one indeed <http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/663>

</comment><comment><USER69> Erin Mckean speaking about the dictionary [http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionar...](http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html) .. watching Erin make the dictionary seem so excited and passionate about something I had never quite considered, that helped pulled me out of a deep funk and get excited about problems I was solving again.

Miru Kim speaking about her Urban Exploration Photograpy: <http://blog.ted.com/2009/02/making_art_of_n.php>

</comment><comment><USER70> Dan Gilbert on happiness - it changed my life.

[http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.h...](http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html)</comment>


Ask HN: Could someone explain the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to me? - <AUTHOR>

I've taken quantum chemistry.  Everyone in the class can rote memorize the formulas and their derivations and write down the expected answers on the test.  I know how to derive [r, p] = (i)(h_bar) from the postulates of QM.  But I still have no clue what this means experimentally.
If someone tells me you can't measure the position and momentum of a bowling ball accurately at the same time, I'll say "yeah right" and drop it on the floor.  Its position is the center of the indentation and the momentum can be determined by its depth.
But if someone says "you can't do it at the particle level", well, why not?  I've got a "position probe".  It reads out the value 0.2535230598235... When it shows one more decimal place, the "momentum probe" explodes to prevent me from knowing its value precisely.  Sorry for the hyperbole, but I've been grappling with this for a while (and even asked some physicists on Stack Exchange) and have still been unable to understand this. <comment><USER2> It seems you're laboring under a misapprehension -- that quantum effects can be understood in the same way that a pendulum, or a planetary orbit, can be understood. Quantum effects can be modeled and predicted very precisely, but they're not open to everyday comprehension like macroscopic physics. Niels Bohr once said, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle can be summarized by saying that there is an irreducible level of uncertainty in measuring a particle's position and momentum -- if you increase the momentum measurement accuracy, you sacrifice the position measurement accuracy, and vice versa. To put this in the simplest terms, if you multiply momentum and position accuracy together, the product of the two accuracies cannot be smaller (more precise) than a certain well- defined lower threshold.

You can force a greater accuracy of either of the two possible measurements, but only at the expense of the other. In the final analysis, if you measure, say, position with an arbitrarily high degree of accuracy, you sacrifice the ability to measure momentum at all. And vice versa.

It's important to say that this fact about measurement at the microscale affects macroscopic measurements as well, but with a progressively lower probability of affecting events, as size and mass increase. To say this in the simplest way, quantum effects are present at all scales, but with a decreased probability of influence as sizes and momenta increase.

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

</comment><comment><USER3> This isn't a 100% explanation but it's how one of my professors explained it as a way to get comfortable with it: let's measure an electron and assume said electron has a well defined position and momentum that we just don't know. Let's say I want to know the position. How am I going to do that? Well, by throwing a photon at it. If the wavelength is small we can find the position fairly accurately but it's going to transfer momentum to the electron and we really don't know how much and it's a relatively major effect. Hmph. Alright, let's measure the momentum instead. We need a longer wavelength so we don't disturb the electron too much. Great, we get a very good value for the momentum! But, unfortunately, the long wavelength is not very accurate for determining the position.

Other intrinsic problems arise even sticking with the photon idea but hopefully this is enough of something to latch onto to help you start to understand.

</comment><comment><USER4> A lot of people seem to think that according to the uncertainty principle it is impossible to _measure_ the momentum and position of a particle together accurately since the more you try to measure one, the more difficult it becomes to try to measure the other.

This is wrong.I used to think this too until I came upon this quora answer.

[http://www.quora.com/How-would-the-uncertainty-principle- be-...](http://www.quora.com/How-would-the-uncertainty-principle-be-explained- in-laymans-terms)

Basically accurate information about the momentum and position of a particle does not _exist_ fundamentally.Observational interference has nothing to do with it.

</comment><comment><USER5> ([http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=heisenbergs...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=heisenbergs- uncertainty-principle-is-not-dead))

([http://theconversation.edu.au/explainer-heisenbergs- uncertai...](http://theconversation.edu.au/explainer-heisenbergs-uncertainty- principle-7512))</comment>