Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later - <AUTHOR> https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/michigan/postcard-stamped-in-1920-delivered-100-years-later <comment><USER4> Years ago for my sister's 30th birthday, I did a fun project involving the USPS.

I wanted to send her the message "Happy Belated Thirtieth Birthday!", which is 30 characters, via postcards, one character per postcard.

I found 30 post offices in unique places throughout the U.S. (For example, I found a town that had the same name as her given name in Illinois. I found another with my name, etc.)

I used Zazzle to print a custom post card for each location with a picture of the location on one side, and a large block letter on the other. I just did a Google image search at the time to find photos of the location. Here's the image I used for "Truth or Consequences, NM":

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Truth_or...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Truth_or_Consequences_NM_- _post_office.jpg)

I then hand wrote a message on each postcard that started with the block letter. This was because she'd be receiving the postcards one-by-one and I didn't want her to realize right away that a message was being spelled out. It would seem like a postcard I might send her from that location if I'd actually been there.

I also found a set of 50-state stamps the USPS had previously issued on eBay, and used the correct state's stamp for its postcard.

Finally, I round-tripped each postcard through its respective post office by mailing it inside an envelope addressed to the postmaster at that post office along with a note to the post master:

 _Dear Postmaster:

I am mailing my sister 30 postcards from 30 towns for her 30th birthday. I have enclosed a postcard, which I ask be hand-cancelled with a postmark from your town. To protect the postcard from machine cancels in its journey through the mail system, I have enclosed a stamped envelope addressed to my sister in which to seal and mail the postcard. Thank you very much for your time! _

I wasn't sure if this would work, but damn if she didn't get all 30 postcards each properly postmarked.

I dropped them all in the mail in NC. Some went as far as Alaska and Hawaii.

She received them in Miami. I think she got the first one within a few days and the rest dribbled in over the next two weeks.

Edit: here they are after she received them all:

[https://ibb.co/YQfx4jZ](https://ibb.co/YQfx4jZ)

<comment><USER5> My mother did something like that, but as a prank on my brother who was at the time in a military hospital. (This during the Vietnam days.)

What she did was got an atlas and identified every town whose name was at all romantic. (Things like Loving, New Mexico.) The postcards that she had come back appeared to be from random girls with as different as she could make the handwriting to be. It was all timed to show up on Valentine's day.

After getting two stacks of postcards from girls with cryptic messages like, "I hope to see you again" and "Visit any time", my brother got a reputation for being a total stud.

<comment><USER4> During my research I learned there's a Bridal Veil, Oregon which is a ghost town except for a post office, which folks like to use to send their wedding invitations.

[https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/why-brides-grooms- are-f...](https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/why-brides-grooms-are-flocking- tiny-post-office-n369271)

<comment><USER6> Sounds like Loveland CO where my aunt said they remail valentine's postcards.

<comment><USER7> To be fair Loveland is by no means deserted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is why it's so important to measure p99 latency rather than maximum latency.

<comment><USER9> true, percentiles are important for telling you how your system is doing and how typical users experience it. However, I contend that you should also measure max latency, just that is is less important for understanding typical usage. But seeing your max go crazy can signal that there is something else in the stack that needs work. Silly example that I hit: max was consistently 2hr on something that p99'd at like 1min and p50'd at 2 seconds. Dug in. The 2hr was a default tcp timeout being tripped due to some connections not being properly returned to the pool. Fix the pool logic and max times came down into the few minute range. This also lowered p99.

<comment><USER8> Good points.

To my point though, you mention that you noticed a "consistent" max of 2hr. Meaning the consistency was the interesting part. You probably consider this issue to be more important than some other hypothetical issue that caused, say, literally a single request to have a 2hr latency on Tuesday.

In other words, if you monitored over a period that was long enough to establish a statistically significant p99.9 or even p99.99 and then measured those percentiles, you still would have not only caught this issue, but also distinguished it from the other hypothetical issue. Monitoring your maximum and worrying about consistently high maximums might be a more effective mechanism, but in principle, you still care more about top percentiles.

<comment><USER10> In sum: top percentiles are more important than the max; but monitoring the max can still be useful.

Just like monitoring the arithmetic average ain't completely useless either. It's just far from the most important metric.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Like many office buildings in NYC, my employer's building had a system of air- pressured mail tubes. I understand (now) that they are kept in some cases as decoration, historical artifact, or due to the building being designated a historical monument (not sure if internals are covered (?).

We didn't understand that as first, and several colleagues and I put postcards and some expense reports into them. I can see the postcard arriving 100 years later!

This was Accenture, and at the time, original receipts were required. Luckily they made an exception on photocopied receipts when I explained what had happened.

<comment><USER12> There was also a discussion of mail chutes in old buildings a while ago, and many suffered from blockages (or being non-operational, as in your case). I could see someone finally clearing out a blockage during a renovation, then dropping the old letters in the mail. But the original article was a card written between families, so probably not in an office building. The flea- market theory from the article seems the most plausible.

<comment><USER13> I've lived in several apartment buildings that had a mail chute, from the top floor to the first floor, next to the elevator. I don't know how often it was checked for blockage; I think the USPS just picked up the mail form the box at the bottom of the chute.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The response from USPS is what I expected. It's unlikely this was in the system for 100 years, but someone put it in the mail recently and the USPS decided to deliver it.

<comment><USER15> That seems almost certainly the case. It seems unlikely that any USPS sorting facility or post office where this could have fallen behind something would still be in use 100 years later (at least without extensive renovations/changes).

<comment><USER16> Remember the USPS is rumored to have recently dismantled hundreds of sorting machines. Entirely possible that some old mail was jammed in there somehow.

Also, cf. "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett.

<comment><USER17> I had that initial thought as well, but there's no way those machines are anywhere near a century old.

<comment><USER18> The sorting machines themselves are certainly not, but the general infrastructure around them sure can be. The World's Most Mechanized Post Office video [1] was filmed circa 1959 and it shows a crazy level of industrialization in the DC facility. Conveyor belts were invented in 1901 or so and such systems can run for a very long time with proper maintenance - <USER2> centuries even, replacing everything but the frame. Given how slowly government usually moves, they must have built up to that scale over decades.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuvwoBb7gs4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuvwoBb7gs4)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> A lot of jokes on here about this being an improvement for USPS, or a distraction.

The truth is that USPS performance has improved dramatically over the last two weeks. You just haven't heard about that because there is very little appetite for good news. See here:

[https://carriers.shipbob.com/#lp-pom- block-1909](https://carriers.shipbob.com/#lp-pom-block-1909)

Our company (bottomless.com, YC W19) uses USPS to do real time delivery and keeps a very close eye on arrival times. Our own internal arrival time data has normalized considerably as well.

<comment><USER20> It is still worse than it was. Yesterday I got local mail that was mailed a week ago and most of the time my mailbox is empty.

Their Informed Delivery service (where I can see what mail is being delivered to me) now says my address is not covered, when it worked for me 2 months ago (not sure when it was disabled, since recently I started worrying about lost mail).

Before it all started, USPS actually operated really well, there were times I got packages faster than through UPS (don't really use FedEx). Actually you can see that from your site they were on average 2 days, when typically everyone was expecting 3 days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I worked in the mail room of a dorm while in college. Part of the daily routine was mindlessly marking things "return to sender," rarely noticing the postmark date. In one instance (this was 2013) we received a pretty beat up piece of mail that was clearly a Valentine's Day card. The postmark date was "02 Feb 1999." Being very intrigued, I found a CV that seemed to belong to the recipient (the CV indicated that they attended the university around the same time) and emailed them. They expressed their gratitude and mentioned that the card was from their now deceased grandparents. I of course forwarded the mail to them. I've always wondered what kind of journey that piece of mail had... I imagine part of it was stuck behind a desk somewhere.

</comment><comment><USER22> In 2120, we'll be reading "votes sent by mail delivered 100 years later".

<comment><USER23> The post office will have time machine by then to get back and deliver on time and change the temporarily altered history. May be we already living in that alternative branch.

<comment><USER24> > May be we already living in that alternative branch.

You conjugated the future semiconditionally modified subinverted plagal past subjunctive intentional incorrectly.

<comment><USER25> I can't tell if this is a very elaborate grammar joke that I don't know enough to understand or a troll.

<comment><USER24> > I can't tell if this is a very elaborate grammar joke that I don't know > enough to understand or a troll.

Neither! (Or, rather, it's DNA's very elaborate grammar joke that I stole.)

[http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/guide.html](http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~param/quotes/guide.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I used to be in the habit of emailing myself links to read later. I once had an email arrive at my gmail account 3 months after I sent it. That's like what 1000 years in internet time? :D

<comment><USER27> There are a couple services that allow you to write a letter to your future self and get it delivered in X months/years.

<comment><USER28> I had a substitute high school teacher one day who made us all write letters to ourselves, then sent them to us like 20 years later long after we'd forgotten about it. It was amazing!

<comment><USER7> Did you achieve all of what you hoped you'd do?

<comment><USER27> I think it would be a great self-introspection exercise to "respond" to this letter. You don't even need a letter- just write to your past self and tell him/her what you've achieved, what you're proud of, what you wish you'd done differently, what you're unsure about for the future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> > In most cases these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our > network and later found. What we typically find is that old letters and > postcards – sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even > online – are re-entered into our system. The end result is what we do best – > as long as there is a deliverable address and postage, the card or letter > gets delivered.

</comment><comment><USER30> We got one 50 years old a few years ago, but it was a return to sender because the street no longer existed. It happened to be a Christmas card right around Christmas.

<comment><USER31> Last year I bought a house and moved out of my apartment. So far I have received 1) two stimulus checks for the two deceased owners of the house 2) funeral home bills 3) family photos they sent and got returned

<comment><USER32> The third one really got me sad, did you successfully sent it back to its intended recipient?

<comment><USER33> How would you do that, burn them?

<comment><USER34> I think the correct word would be: sacrifice ;-)

<comment><USER33> Yes. Thank you. You are of course correct, and I appreciate you pointing that out to me. Make them holy and sacred.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> jagged-chisel You get your postmark from the originating post office. If I drop something in the mail here, the local post office marks the item (verifying & invalidating the postage), perhaps encodes the address in the barcode at the bottom (I don't recall whether that's centralized work or not), and sends it along its merry way to the destination.

The postmark is obviously printed by a modern (impact?) printer. Why the post office would accept a mailing with incorrect postage for current times is notable - maybe someone making the call just shrugged it off an allowed it to pass.

<comment><USER35> Sometimes they don't notice that the postage is wrong, or even missing entirely. I've heard stories of people drawing "stamps" on letters to see if it would pass, and I know I've successfully mailed a letter without putting a stamp on it at all (by accident, and was surprised that it was delivered).

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> ≥ Brittany says if she can't find the family she's gonna try and get it put into the museum in Belding.

Wtf sort of professional journalist writes "gonna" in an article on a news site?

<comment><USER37> Might be verbatim, but then again there are no quotes. This is indeed local news so actual writing and proofreading skills might be lesser than those of national outlets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> > We did reach out to the post office for comment and a spokesperson told me, > "In most cases these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our > network and later found. What we typically find is that old letters and > postcards – sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even > online – are re-entered into our system. The end result is what we do best – > as long as there is a deliverable address and postage, the card or letter > gets delivered."

</comment><comment><USER39> This is a good example of why eventual consistency is a weak guarantee.

</comment><comment><USER40> Fun, but this is most likely fake. I.e. this card has not been laying at the postoffice for 100 years.

In this case it seems particularly clear: look at the glue markings in the middle of the card. This indicates this postcard probably has been sitting in a collectors' album for quite some time, before someone thought of removing it and pulling a joke.

This sort of thing happens all the time by people who post the card after it has been sitting in a collection for some time. Since it is a valid card, the post office will deliver it nonetheless. That's what they do! (Here's a Dutch example: [https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/kerstkaart-na-ruim-halve- eeuw-a...](https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/kerstkaart-na-ruim-halve-eeuw-alsnog- bezorgd~aefe43da/))

Disclaimer: I checked this with an acclaimed philatelic collector.

</comment><comment><USER41> It was addressed to Marty McFly!

<comment><USER42> I'm surprised I had to scroll this far for that comment. First thing I thought of with the headline.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I'm glad to see some improvement in the USPS

<comment><USER44> That got an audible laugh out of me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> > It was an old Halloween postcard

Are we sure this is not the plot to an upcoming horror film?

</comment><comment><USER46> "We have been trying to reach you about your car insurance..."

</comment><comment><USER47> I read an interesting article on the USPS. They aren't just a threat to the US elections, Europeans who live in the US and want to vote are screwed as well. Next day delivery is not something that is guaranteed in every country.

</comment><comment><USER48> Sometimes I wonder what we've lost from not writing letters and using Facebook. Reading this, maybe not all that much, and the long-distance relationships we maintain have always been superficial.

</comment><comment><USER49> I wonder, in 2100 will there be a UDP packet delivered from 100 years ago?

<comment><USER50> Nope, but there'll be a TCP packet that's been re-sending over and over for the past 100 years.

<comment><USER49> But we'll still be using IPv4 so all good!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Am I the only one that think that might be a hoax? How is the post card be preserved for a century without significant damages to it? Moisture, mold and other nature situation would have destroyed it in a few decades. I really want to hear the back story of this story.

Also, the address still EXISTS after a hundred years? No rezoning, no town name change or street name change? Many rural houses built in 1920 would not have survive 100 years without major overhauls.

</comment><comment><USER52> Is this a distraction story from USPS?

<comment><USER53> I like the scepticism!

But the fact that the story was posted by the recipient of the post card, to a Facebook Group, and then only hit the news after going viral means it probably wasn't done by a PR company.

Having done some of this "black hat PR" myself I can tell you that we don't typically cover our tracks that well.

We almost always plant bullshit by going to the news outlets themselves, or paying a blogger to put up an article on BI, Forbes, of HuffPo.

On a completely unrelated note, have you guys heard Amazon is hiring 33,000 new employees with a compensation package average of 150k? Just to help with unemployment during this time of crisis. Pretty cool of them to do that.

<comment><USER54> A blog post with your experience -even heavily redacted- would be interesting on the black-hat PR/public opinion swaying as a separate topic if you ever feel inclined.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> Wormate

</comment><comment><USER56> I call shenanigans. There is a bar code on the bottom part of the postcard. It has 65 bars. This is consistent with the Intelligent Mail Barcode that was introduced in 2013. Prior to that there were different barcode standards, Postnet and Planet, but neither had 65 bars, the highest number of bars that Postnet had was 62, and they were short and long only. This barcode here has 4 types of bars: short, long up, long down, and long up-and-down; again this is consistent with the IMB code.

By the way, barcodes were introduced to encode ZIP codes, and ZIP codes were introduced in 1963.

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

<comment><USER57> > We did reach out to the post office for comment and a spokesperson told me, > "In most cases these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our > network and later found. What we typically find is that old letters and > postcards – sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even > online – are re-entered into our system. The end result is what we do best – > as long as there is a deliverable address and postage, the card or letter > gets delivered."

A bit of a sensationalized headline. Just an old postcard, the postmark is recent.

<comment><USER58> > sensationalized headline

No, the postmark is 1920 according to the article.

See [https://i.imgur.com/r8HqDc2.png](https://i.imgur.com/r8HqDc2.png)

<comment> toby- Can it not have multiple postmarks? The stamp at the top (which says 1920) and the modern barcode underneath?

<comment> kube-system The barcode is not a postmark, it's a machine readable version of the address

<comment><USER59> Nerdy nitpick: It might not be quite an "address". In the UK at least the machine readable information (either added during sorting or printed deliberately for a discount rate by bulk senders) indicates a _delivery point_ a place to which this post will be in fact delivered, distinct from an address.

For example my address says Flat 7 of 60 My Street, and a friend lives at Flat 10 of 74 My Street. But _my_ delivery point is a letter box in the front door of my home, whereas his delivery point is just a locked box at street level. Timed locks allow the postman to enter my building despite not having a key, so as to deliver post to my front door, whereas his building doesn't do this.

The company (almost everything in the UK is privatised because Tory ideology says this is a good idea even if it clearly isn't) delivering post owns very detailed maps of where all these delivery points are, because of course it needs its employees to visit all those points to deliver post, whereas it needn't care where in some sense an "address" is other than where the post is to be delivered.

<comment><USER60> Address (n): "a place where a person or organization may be communicated with"

<comment><USER59> Mmm. Where did you find that definition?

My (Collins) paper dictionary offers:

"The conventional form by which the location of a building is described" and nothing close to what you've suggested.

Wiktionary offers: [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/address](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/address)

"A description of the location of a property, usually with at least [...]"

<comment><USER60> Merriam-Webster:

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/address](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/address)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> Anti Post office propaganda?

</comment><comment><USER62> I ordered a package of plastic worms (for bass fishing) back in June. They were shipped from Texas on 06-21, and as of today (09-10), they still haven't arrived (Chapel Hill, NC).

Yet strangely enough, the postal service tracking system updated the status about a month ago, from "In Transit" to "In Transit - Arriving Late". Derp, derp.

Anyway, I've pretty much given up on them at this point, but I wonder if like 100 years from now, or at some other arbitrary point in time down the line, somebody who lives here after me is going to find a package of plastic worms in the mailbox...

<comment><USER63> I had a small package in customs in Chicago for three months recently. Seems to be the norm in these times.

<comment><USER62> Yeah, I mean, I could understand something coming through customs. But this particular package was something manufactured and shipped in Texas.

I did recently have a rather long wait for a book that was shipped from, aaah... I think it was either Germany or England. I think it took about a month and a half to arrive.

Of course I understand that COVID has had a major impact, but the one from Texas still annoys me. I mean, c'mon... over two months from TX to NC? Give me a break. :-(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> Speaking of USPS: I shipped a package from Japan to my home in San Francisco, 3 months ago. The package arrived two days ago. I opened it... And realized the content has been "replaced" with junk books of (I assume) a similar weight of the original.

The content was a few ceramic plates, a few books, some tea - <USER3> particularly expensive, but these were items that we bought during our stay in Japan.

I hate this. I hate the person or persons that have done this. I pretty much feel my own person has been violated.

Also, knowing USPS, I'm certain that nothing will ever happen to these THIEVES, and that there will be no easy way for me to force them to open an investigation.

Sorry for the venting... But I somehow had to express this inner rage somewhere, and when I saw this thread I couldn't resist.

<comment><USER65> You would be surprised.

Call the postal inspector office in your area. They take mail theft very seriously.</comment></comment>


One of the saddest stories of the 20th century is the fate of air travel. - <AUTHOR> http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/09/naked-airport-gordon-politics <comment><USER2> "One of the saddest stories of the 20th century is the fate of air travel."

Or the Holocaust.

Or Stalin murdering 10 million folks.

Certainly one of those three.

<comment><AUTHOR> Did you read the article? The author is clearly referring to where we were at the beginning of the 20th century w/r to air travel (it didn't exist but was associated with a modern utopia), and where we were at the end of the century. It's a romantic lament, to be sure, but if you actually read the article the sentence fits as a lede.

And as a Jew, those epic failures of humanity, to me, provide a stark relief to the promise of globalization afforded by air travel. They represent the breakdown of (slowly) dying nationalistic geopolitics. Air travel was one hopeful cure made ugly in reality.

<comment><AUTHOR> That comment above is really bothering me. I suppose it's a mix of the callous disregard of the context in which the sentence lies and as a reflection of where we sit after maybe 15 years of a popular worldwide internet. To me, this quote now springs to mind:

"One of the saddest stories of the 21th century is the fate of human communication."

And yet, it's only 2008.

<comment><USER3> I also find it unusually bothersome. We all feel like being snarky bitches sometimes, which is mostly okay. I just expect those posts to get downvoted here.

<comment><USER4> Now that I read the replies, I wish I had thought twice about uploading the "one of those three" comment. You're right, HN deserves better.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Seriously? If we manage to turn space travel into a "mundane chore", I'll be very happy indeed.

<comment><AUTHOR> But then you likely won't be alive and your children's children won't see what the big deal is (was).

Shoot, how many today pause to consider the wonder that is a photograph of Earth taken from space. And that was _only_ 40-50 years ago.

<comment><USER6> > _But then you likely won't be alive and your children's children won't see > what the big deal is (was)._

But we'll finally make that delivery to Ebola 9, the virus planet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In a Q&A at UNC in 1996 (part 1 of which is linked below), Warren Buffett noted that doing the math from the Wright brothers all the way through 1996, the airline industry overall had yet to make a dime of profit.

The silver lining is that perhaps that failure is wiped out by the amount of unrelated profit-making that flight has enabled. But it's still quite weird that flying passengers around is so hard to build a business around.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApjnM0fIjXg>

</comment><comment><USER8> He seems to be saying that air-travel went from nothing to 2/3 of the way there, and he's sad b/c some startup hasn't yet made it fun and easier.

<comment><USER5> People have overwhelmingly chosen _cheap_ , above fun or easy.

<comment><USER9> It's sad that both fun and easy had to get worse in order to make it cheap (or is that a side effect?). Bring back the zeppelin!

<comment><USER10> It's sad that believe this stuff is sad.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Edward Snowden's Escape from Hong Kong [audio] - <AUTHOR> https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8416-the_untold_story_of_edward_snowden_s_escape_from_hong_kong <comment><USER2> The links to donate:

\- [https://www.gofundme.com/snowdenguardians](https://www.gofundme.com/snowdenguardians)

\- [https://fundrazr.com/snowdensguardians](https://fundrazr.com/snowdensguardians)

<comment><USER3> Hey thanks for these donated my share, is there a phone number I could reach to conduct an interview?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Article in the Handelsblatt about the same time frame of Snowdens hiding in Hong-Kong: [https://global.handelsblatt.com/politics/edward-snowdens- gua...](https://global.handelsblatt.com/politics/edward-snowdens-guardian- angels-602295)

</comment><comment><USER5> The story begins around 18:30.

After listening to these folks explain the situation of refugees and their legal status in HK, one wonders a bit why EJS decided to go there as his first stop.

<comment><USER6> I work with some wealthy people. This is a fun topic and favourite topic--if the U.S. fell to fascism, where would you go.

The most popular answe is Argentina. The most interesting is Kerala.

<comment><USER7> I am from Kerala and genuinely curious - why Kerala? And why Argentina for that matter?

<comment><USER8> I have never heard the name before, but:

 _Kerala has the lowest positive population growth rate in India, 3.44%; highest Human Development Index (HDI), 0.790 in 2011; the highest literacy rate, 93.91% in the 2011 census; the highest life expectancy, 77 years; and the highest sex ratio, 1,084 women per 1000 men._

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

Interesting!

<comment><USER7> Yup, we managed to get some things right. Interesting read: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala_model)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I feel for Lena Rohrbach. That was a nightmare presentation, gets 5 minutes into her part of the talk and the power dies on her laptop.

<comment><USER10> Lena handled it very gracefully. She gives a very quick synopsis of what her part of the talk would have been around the 41 minute mark.

The whole presentation was plagued by gremlins; the substance begins with Sönke Iversen's part of the talk around 13:45.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Short summary: There's a two week period in Hong Kong missing from the film CitizenFour and this talk is about the three refugee families and their lawyer who sheltered and protected Snowden in that time in Hong Kong. Also how asylum seekers in Hong Kong have a 0.3% chance of being accepted and how any assistance (if any) these people have gotten before have been cut by the government after their involvement with Snowden. The talks seeks raising awareness for them and shows a few ways of how donations for them are being collected. Also, one of the refugees, Vanessa from the Philippines, was skyped in live, which was quite touching.

There's not a lot of revealing new info here, but wonderful people in dire need of support.

<comment><USER12> What is amazing that these people helped Snowden knowing they were risking their life and not expecting anything in return. That is selfless service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The U.S. has fallen to fascism, where will you go?

<comment><USER14> Fascism: everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.

If you can freely choose to leave then that's a strong indicator that your nation is not fascist.

<comment><USER15> > If you can freely choose to leave then that's a strong indicator that your > nation is not fascist.

So the people who decided to flee from Nazi-Germany, the Soviet Union or North Korea were not fleeing from a fascist country?

<comment><USER16> Two points on this:

1\. OP said strong indicator. It's by no means the only indicator and a state can be fascist whilst still allowing people to leave.

2\. Many people who were not targets of the regime were unable to flee Nazi- Germany, the Soviet Union, and North Korea.

<comment><USER15> > 1\. OP said strong indicator. It's by no means the only indicator and a > state can be fascist whilst still allowing people to leave.

OP said that:

> If you can freely choose to leave then that's a strong indicator that your > nation is not fascist.

I'm saying that it isn't an indicator for fascism: there is no country where every person who wants to leave, is unable to (whether it's illegal to leave is another question). Therefore, in all countries, fascist or not, there will be people who can freely choose to leave.

I think that a better indicator would be:

> If no ethnic/religious/politic/whatever group of people are prevented in a > legal or physical way to leave the country, then that's a strong indicator > that your nation is not fascist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Pretty please a summary? I am on mobile.</comment>


Future Economy (2010) [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilY4hRgfC2Q <comment><USER2> It's a nice theory but doesn't solve the problem of supply and demand. If there are 7 billion people on earth that all want a widget, how does this economic philosophy handle the fact that the manufacturing capability can only produce enough widgets for 1 billion people. Who decides which billion people get the widget?

<comment><USER3> Well, for a start, it's a post-scarcity society that has the capacity to produce 7 billion widgets if necessary. So that gets you around a lot of problems.

You'll notice that the crew quarters in the show are decorated in a minimalist style. The only objects people keep are the ones that are important to them. Tools, games, gifts can be conjured as needed and recycled when you're done with them.

Scarce resources do exist, however, especially on a starship: crew quarters are probably not all of the same size, for example. Some people might have to walk a little further to the turbolift (elevator). These sorts of resource allocation problems are likely solved by either a lottery method or based on need. For example, if the Captain gets bigger quarters, it's not because she's the captain, it's because she might need the space to host visiting delegates, etc.

Although I suppose there are still some material inequalities based on rank. For example, ensigns get a single rank pip, while a captain gets four.

<comment><USER4> A post-scarcity economy is never going to be able to create more lake-front properties or more seats at the top pop star's front-row. (Although I suppose you could argue: VR. But I doubt people even 100 years from now will agree VR is just as good as the real thing.)

When you think about it, there's a lot of stuff that'll still be scarce even when we have magic robots that can build everything instantly.

<comment><USER5> If you want to keep capitalism in a post-scarcity society- all you need to do is counter the exponential production with exponential consumption- breed tribble-human hybrids.

<comment><USER6> That's actually not keeping capitalism in a post-scarcity society, since the proposal relies on having existing (and artificially enhancing the existing) scarcity.

If anything that anyone wants is limited such that enhancing one person's realized utility is a trade-off with someone else's realized utility, you don't have a post-scarcity situation.

Which is why post-scarcity isn't really something we are ever likely to need to worry about.

What we need to worry about is a scenario with scarcity where large masses of the public are (some in a static way, and some in a transitional way that, with optimal policy, could resolve given time), through arrangement of capital and the relative utility of automation vs. labor (including when it comes to producing additional automated production units) unable to contribute significantly to output, and thus have nothing to sell in the marketplace.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Here's the thing, we could live like this now, we don't need any new technological advancements to make this possible, yet we haven't and don't.

So if you're waiting for the future to make this altruistic lifestyle mainstream, ask yourself what's holding it back now. It's certainly not a lack of material wealth, we've had that for centuries.

</comment><comment><USER8> You see, in the future, we don't work to produce; machines can do that handily. We work to prove to other humans that we are worth enough to get a share of the product.

But isn't that pointless? You could instead just enjoy life doing whatever else you want to do, if the machines already produce everything you need.

Yes. But it is our collective decision, not a decision of any of us. The needs of the society take precedence over the needs of each of us. The only way to reverse the decision is -

\- to collectively agree that every one of you wants something else?

Yes. There is an old economic theory predicting that the preferences of the society should eventually reflect individual preferences of its members, at least in the long run. There is still hope that this will happen in the future, but not before I will be long dead, I'm afraid.

<comment><USER9> In the future there will exist people who are equally capable as they are today. These people will also possess the same needs and desires that people today possess.

It used to be that each person was responsible for performing tasks that would ensure their survival and the survival of those important to them.

Specialization and division of labor allowed certain people to do productive activities that didn't directly connect to their own survival.

Some people built houses and thatched roofs. Some people became blacksmiths and made tools. Others farmed large plots of land.

Markets in equilibrium allow producers and consumers to exchange goods and services for money and the system as a whole can be said to be more productive.

As some point in time though, machines will advanced such that nearly any productive output a human can undertake would be performed more efficiently by a machine instead. The value of human labor output will be driven to nearly zero.

Where people go wrong is that they ask the question, "If humans make no money how will they buy anything, won't everyone just starve to death?"

The purpose of an economy seems to be to create information in the form of prevailing wages which signal to members what tasks the system values. Once machines are the supermajority of the productive value output and humans are a mere tax on output, we take on a role similar to the ones pets have right now.

If the machines are sentient, then they simply outcompete us and we lose unless they support us with generosity. If the machines are owned and directed, then either the majority of people will decide to ensure some component of the machines output will always be directed to the sustaining of humanity. If a minority owns the machines and resist the taxing of their wealth, then there will be revolution and violence.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wish. The truth is the whole world is run on money, meaning the millionaires and billionaires are the ones in charge. It absolutely doesn't have to be this way; we already produce so much food no one need starve. But greed runs deep within humanity, preventing this sort of change from ever happening.

<comment><USER11> You can make this change happen in your own life. Perhaps not completely, but probably significantly enough to make a big difference. Truth is: the whole world is run on money.... because we're all looking for money. Change your mind, use all the margin you have, promote humanity, and your world starts to change.

<comment><USER10> This isn't a small scale change, everyone has to be on board for it to work.

<comment><USER11> A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. It can be yours.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> (haven't watched it yet) Why should we wait for the future to improve ourselves and humanity? IMHO we should start right now. We should even have started a long time ago.

<comment><USER10> Mainly because the ones in power want to stay in power, and actively stop change. We are safer than ever, yet according to the media we are super lucky to not be killed by a terrorist every second of the day.

<comment><USER11> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_on_Voluntary_Servitu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse_on_Voluntary_Servitude)

The essay argues that any tyrant remains in power until his subjects grant him that, therefore delegitimizing every form of power. The original freedom of men would be indeed abandoned by society which, once corrupted by the habit, would have preferred the servitude of the courtier to the freedom of the free man, who refuses to be submissive and to obey.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well at least we have Swedish furniture. Take the wall-alcove Borg for example. Visit the next Ikea-Kubus near you.

Transhumanism had a Backdoor.

</comment><comment> UK-AL The money is just tool to achieve your goals.

You don't need to get rid of it to acheive your personal goals.

<comment><USER9> Money isn't a tool. Tool have uses and multiply productivity of their users. Money is, among other things, a representative of value.

<comment> UK-AL Money does have multiple uses and multiplies productivity if correctly used

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ok; I want to improve myself by moving into a big house on the shore of Lake Washington.

Oh. It takes money to do that? Well shoot.

EDIT: to actually respond to the video clip, it's kind of surprising how interesting Star Trek got when they threw out some of Roddenberry's ideas during the Deep Space 9 era. The Starfleet people co-existed with the Ferengi and Bajorans who _didn 't_ have post-scarcity economies. The Bajorans were also highly religious. Starfleet had a shadowy spy organization willing to assassinate foreign leaders. A Starfleet Captain becomes a traitor to Earth-- twice!

And yet despite that, Deep Space 9 is one of the most beloved Star Trek series.

Related to the clip above:

(Quark is selling an auction of a 1950s baseball card Jake wants. Jake's convincing Nog, a Ferengi, to help him.)

Nog: "It's my money, Jake! If you want to bid at the auction, use your own money."

Jake: "I'm Human, I don't have any money."

Nog: "It's not my fault that your species decided to abandon currency-based economics in favor of some philosophy of self-enhancement."

Jake: "Hey, watch it. There's nothing wrong with our philosophy. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity."

Nog: "What does that mean exactly?"

Jake: "It means... it means we don't need money!"

Nog: "Well, if you don't need money, then you certainly don't need mine!"

<comment><USER10> I don't think anyone is saying you suddenly don't need money, because in our current society you absolutely do. But it is possible to imagine one without it, once we get over a certain threshold of technology.

<comment><USER4> What threshold is going to make prime real estate lots around Lake Washington not scarce?

Asking seriously. Because I have a lot of imagination and I can't come up with anything. Except perhaps we all plug into VR 24/7 like The Matrix. But even in my fake Matrix VR house, I'd envy the guy with the real thing.

<comment><USER12> you may envy the guy with the "real thing," but future generations likely won't. if you have fully immersive virtual reality environments, then it won't matter where you live.

as someone who has done a recent job search, i knew i couldn't afford to live in the bay area with my large family, but half og the companies i interviewed with were in the bay area allowing me to work remotely. the technology and kind of work we do (software engineering) is getting good enough to broaden the reach of "the office."

if we had just fully integrated audio and visual environments, for work collaboration, i could see many people choosing to live at the lakeside in montana and work in seattle rather than having to live on Lake Washington.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Know how transfer as a freelancer - <AUTHOR> How do you discuss the topic that you are the only one with the know how about a project? I assume a lot of clients want to have some backup plan if something happens to you.<p>Do you just document everything very thoroughly and convince them that's enough for an other developer to pickup? <comment><USER2> My advice is not to bring it up. Most of them aren't even going to consider it. They'll think that just having the code will be enough.

Of course, you _should_ document things when appropriate, and your code should be good, clean, and maintainable. It's what they're paying you for.

<comment><USER3> I agree. Most clients don't worry about technical details. "People don't want a drill,they want a hole."

Add the documentation for the unusual parts in case some moron has to continue with the project six months later, and imagine that the moron is you, so be careful.

Somewhat related: "Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice" [http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a- pro...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/) (I don't like the title, but I like the article.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The code should be self-explanatory for a developer, if not add documentation inside the code.

I like to document anything the client will have at some point to touch. Deployment and configuration must be documented.

There are two different things to consider: \- Your client beeing able to deploy or use what you give them. \- Your client beeing able to modify or add features to the existing code.

Always do the first one. I always discuss this kind of things before starting a project with the client. And everything discussed is mentioned inside the contract.</comment>


The importance of investor signaling in venture pricing - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/2010/03/11/the-importance-of-investor-signaling-in-venture-pricing/

<comment><USER2> If I was Sequoia, I would basically require that all Sequoia investments be kept in utmost secrecy until the investment round closes. Thus, nobody would be able to piggy back of the Sequoia investments.

Think about it, what does Sequoia really do? They do not really provide capital, because they use other people's capital. Their contribution or value is in selecting the investments. Presumably, they are so popular and rich and successful because they are very good at selecting profitable investments.

If you think about it in this way, it is no surprise at all that there is a herd mentality with VCs. It is actually kind of logical. If an investor merely follows the Sequoia investments, they will get the benefit of Sequoia's presumably excellent investment picking skills without having to pay Sequoia anything. For example, imagine if you are an investor that is well connected in SV and you simply sniff out deals where Sequoia is investing and put in 10c of your money for every dollar that Sequoia puts in. That is like being an investor of a Sequoia fund. But it is even better because the actual Sequoia investors would have to pay costs to finance the salaries of the very well paid Sequoia partners. You on the other hand get in for free.

So Sequoia is crazy to let other people in on what investments they are making.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Don't try to be clever and get an auction going"

This differs from the advice I heard from a lot of savvy founders who used investor interest to ratchet up to better investors and valuations.

You gotta be a playa to pull that off, though.

EDIT FOR CLARITY: I'm not talking about shopping term sheets; this is universally agreed to be a Bad Idea.

</comment><comment><USER4> It seems like he's discussing a form of reflexivity, this phenomenon actually IS present in the capital markets.

</comment><comment><USER5> Chris Dixon: _Don't try to be clever and get an auction going... [i]f you do, once the price gets to the point where only one investor remains, that investor will look left and right and see no one there and might get cold feet and leave you with no deal at all._

Venture Hacks: _Auctions and artificial deadlines create a positive feedback loop of social proof ("Other people want to invest, don't you?") and scarcity ("Hurry up or the deal is going to disappear"). That's what closes deals... [but] don't use the a-word ('auction') when you're raising money. Investors don't like it. Auctions are "taboo" when you're selling part of your company to an investor..._

[http://venturehacks.com/articles/adam-smith/comment- page-1#s...](http://venturehacks.com/articles/adam-smith/comment- page-1#series)

Synthesizing the two, it seems you want an auction-like simultaneous, short- term, competitive process... but without the 'auction' name, without being too blatant, and without winnowing it down to a solitary highest bidder (who will then face buyer's remorse/fear-of-winner's-curse).</comment>


How Google's Fake News Rules May End Their Search Monopoly - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@Aegist/how-to-end-googles-monopoly-5c46ef7db20d <comment><USER2> Dupe content, poor SEO, etc, seem enough to explain what is reported:

[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/0Y...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/webmasters/0YippLN0KoA;context- place=forum/webmasters)</comment>


Potential security flaw in network (digitalocean.com) - <AUTHOR>

Digitalocean.com has misconfigured their network in a way that allows for anyone to monitor customer network traffic. During the process of checking MySQL replication between master and slave, I noticed there was a lot of background noise in tcpdump. It seems DigitalOcean has, using KVM and libvirt per their own recognition, put the libvirt-interface in an overly large bridge, and then kept applying more and more networks (multiple /24, it seems). While this might be a convenient way of assigning new networks to an ever-growing customer stock, it also sort of turns the entire thing into an amateur radio station (using the word amateur here to denote the activity, not the skill level of Digitalocean staff!). I do not want to be able to read what goes on with various mail, ircd, web and Microsoft sql servers, in networks far outside of my logical reach, as a customer with one IPv4. I am not an angry ex-customer. I will keep using their services, if this is fixed. I will not paste logs as that would add nothing to my disclosure, more than a possibility to exploit innocent users. I wish to encourage the community to take a few steps back and not engage in target practice, while Digitalocean undoubtedly remedies this situation (I have been in contact with them repeatedly before coming here). I hope that this helps, for whatever it's worth. This is where my involvement ends. I leave this information in the hands of the community.<p>Best Regards, Johan Boger (also posted on full disclosure). <comment><USER3> I'm very surprised by this. I see (or assume I see) the server you used to have. Nor can I find a ticket related to this issue. I don't want to flat out say "Will not fix -- can not reproduce" but on the other hand, I can't fix it if we can't reproduce it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Where do you want me to email logs?

Thank you for your reply! I will send you user-id, so you can check tickets, and I will email you a full tcp-dump from my vps.

Best Regards,

Johan Boger

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have now talked to Digitalocean, the issue has been identified and a fix has been applied.

Fast, courteous, responsive. There is something to learn here for other cloud shops.

</comment><comment><USER4> I noticed something similar to this (not sure if it's the exact same) - <USER2> it to HN here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5734960](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5734960). Not sure how far DO looked into it, but it was considered normal behaviour at that time...

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not seeing this on my DO installation.

<comment><USER5> Although, I did notice that my installation came setup using Google's free public DNS servers (184.108.40.206, 184.108.40.206) -- curious that digital ocean isn't running their own DNS servers. If google has an outage, thats a lot of customers who will be complaining to Digital Ocean when they have 0 control over it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can confirm it is still displaying sensitive information.

<comment><USER6> Have you raised this with digital ocean? That should be your first port of call before you go blurting it out on the internet.

<comment><AUTHOR> As per guidelines of responsible disclosure, I contacted digitaloceans a good 10 hours before going public. I also contacted them again -before- going public, telling them I would do so, and why.

I feel I have done my best to ensure this does not harm them in any way, while making sure customers are protected.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Moving from academia to tech? - <AUTHOR> Short version: What advice would you give to someone interested in leaving non-applied academic science and getting into tech?
I wanted to give a very general prompt so that any answers I'm lucky enough to receive might be useful to others, but maybe I should mention that I'll soon have a PhD and live in a major US city. Let me bring up some more specifics in the form of concerns that I don't think are overly personal.
* I read HN every day and have a rough idea of what's going on but haven't had time to program seriously in years. I believe I'm still capable of throwing together a useful web application in a matter of days but I imagine this is true of today's unpaid interns. I've no relevant portfolio or formal experience.
* In the evenings I'm enjoying reading about algorithms again. Given my training I think I could make meaningful contributions here. But again, no real experience and I'm used to thinking about theory for days at a time -- if I even reached an interview I think I'd be a disaster.
In person I would have more to say but this is already very long. You are right to be skeptical of the basic idea. I hope it's at least an interesting question and that I didn't miss anything while searching. <comment><USER2> What kind of job(s) do you think you're interested in?

I moved from academia to a data science job, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

My background: Math PhD from a top school, though my research was very abstract - not really related to machine learning, algorithms, or statistics. I had some coding experience in undergrad but none in grad school.

My path: I did the Insight Data Science bootcamp ([http://insightdatascience.com/](http://insightdatascience.com/)), which was very effective for me.

There are really two things I got out of the bootcamp that made it effective:

1) Connections

2) Impressive project(s) to show off & get your foot in the door.

You may be able to do these things without the help of a bootcamp, and I think especially if you're more interested in coding, there are a ton of good bootcamps that can provide you with the connections and last little bit of training to land a good job.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing your experience. Our biographies are the same up until to the data science part.

I hadn't really thought about these bootcamps. I'm skeptical, not only because the tuition is most of a year's stipend; but your numbered points are persuasive.

I think software engineering is an obvious target. Maybe that's still too broad. There are aspects of data science (here is another word for me to define) that seem interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I know someone who moved from Postdoc level Physics to Machine Learning. He is a strong and capable member on one of the teams that I work with.

Its certainly possible, but my guess is the big challenge is persuading a company that this is actually possible.

His strengths are being to understand the mathematical concepts and use them as tools to solve real world problems. I do not know your subject, but I would recommend finding something in what you do and applying it to tech -- you should be aiming MUCH higher than throwing a web application together.

Edit: I'd also recommend applying to Google and not expecting to make through the interviews. The amount of effort in getting up to interview level there certainly helps in getting positions in less well known companies.

<comment><AUTHOR> >the big challenge is persuading a company that this is actually possible

I wanted to say this but didn't want to be presume too much, so thank you for saying it -- getting a foot in the door seems a problem. I'd like to think that I'd have strengths similar to your physicist friend, but I can't prove that right now.

I work in algebraic geometry. There is an "applied" subfield but I have very little knowledge of what it is those people do, and my experience is that mathematicians have a funny definition of application. Reading some papers tomorrow couldn't hurt, though. Of course I still want to work on interesting problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Define tech.

<comment><AUTHOR> I could not do this in a satisfactory way -- I admit it was a poor choice of words that I spent some time making.

Do you think it would be good to be much more specific? I worry the "ask" tab would be a mess if it were filled with such threads. I'm also uneasy with the relevant terminology.

<comment><USER4> "I want to get into science." <\-- "science" is about as specific as "tech". You're going to have to narrow the focus of your inquiry to get a helpful response from me :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> PhD in ...?

<comment><AUTHOR> Mathematics. Maybe I was too vague.</comment></comment>


Elon Musk unveils first tourist for SpaceX 'Moon loop' - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45550755 <comment><USER2> I wonder why it's not Elon himself? He can obviously afford it, and it is clearly his passion, so why not take a once in a lifetime opportunity and head into space?

<comment><USER3> _He can obviously afford it_

Can he? He definitely has the potential to be massively wealthy. If Tesla/SpaceX/BoringCo/etc exit at some point he'll walk away with '*&^@ you money', but until then he doesn't seem to have that much. According to Bloomberg he's in debt with personal loans to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars[1].

To be honest though, I don't really understand how normal money-you-buy-stuff- with works for people who are billionaires when most of their wealth is in stock and options.

[1] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-16/musk- pick...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-16/musk-picks-his- coziest-bank-goldman-sachs-to-help-go-private)

<comment><USER4> > To be honest though, I don't really understand how normal money-you-buy- > stuff-with works for people who are billionaires when most of their wealth > is in stock and options.

He takes out loans with his shares as collateral to get spending money.

Why not just sell? Because he expects the shares to appreciate more than what he'd pay in interest and/or to retain the shareholder vote.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Scheduled for 2023 - I do hope this doesn't interfere with the SpaceX Mars missions.

<comment><USER6> A trans-lunar flight might be very useful as a test flight before the first Mars mission anyway. Going to Mars will be an extremely risky venture to start with and the first few vehicles probably won't be coming back even if they make it, so it also makes sense to extract a bit of economic value out of the vehicle beforehand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> tldr Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 42.

</comment><comment><USER8> Why, when Elon is mentioned in a bad light is his birthplace always mentioned by the British media. As if the reader is too stupid to grasp that an individual can become disagreeable all by themselves. Why bring South Africa into this article: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us- canada-45551895](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45551895) and not this one about space and the future. It hurts tourism which is very important for GDP there.

<comment><USER9> Googling for 'Musk "south africa born"' ([https://www.google.com/search?q=musk+"south+africa+born"](https://www.google.com/search?q=musk+"south+africa+born")) seems to have articles on both sides of the argument (including one calling him the real life tony stark).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why did [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18011723](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18011723) get pushed off the front page so quickly?

<comment><USER11> It is weird. We just heard a private person is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to help fund a flyby of the moon.

Strange undeed.

<comment><USER12> I suspect publicity created by this will easy recoup all expenses.

<comment><USER13> How?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of travelling to space", provided you're an everyday billionaire :-D.

<comment><USER15> I have zero issues with this. The rich tend to adopt or do what the rest cannot very early and a good many things do trickle down. Just look at all the safety features on entry level cars these days, most used to be pure luxury items. Even the idea of an affordable EV. the go into your home and see every day items and just look at the price changes on big ticket items.

I remember the days in the 70s when flying was too expensive for families to consider. Even making a long distance call was reserved for special events.

I don't suspect travel in space will be that way in my life time being that I am in my fifties but I can hope.

<comment><USER16> > The rich tend to adopt or do what the rest cannot very early and a good many > things do trickle down... I remember the days in the 70s when flying was too > expensive for families to consider.

Electricity as well. The very first few installations of electricity in homes by Edison were in Pierpont Morgan's home and soon followed by Morgan's friends' homes.

It makes logical sense too that it should be this way because early on, tech is usually very expensive and highly experimental such that if it fails, only the rich can afford the losses and upkeep.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I thought Elon Musk was a "total fraud"?

[https://nypost.com/2018/07/21/elon-musk-is-a-total- fraud/amp...](https://nypost.com/2018/07/21/elon-musk-is-a-total-fraud/amp/)

</comment><comment><USER18> Half of Elon is apparently a treasure of humanity, and the other half is some giant unstable douche. How do we arrange an intervention such that the guy getting high on Joe Rogan and harassing expats doesn't bring down the guy doing the good stuff?

<comment><USER19> How a guy smoking a joint can trouble you is beyond me.

<comment><USER20> It's not the smoking a joint part that is troublesome (and let's face it, he didn't really 'smoke'), but the how and when and why part and what it say about his judgement (or lack of it).

Unless you buy the theory that he did it to cleverly deflect attention away from something else.

<comment><USER19> I buy the theory that he just wanted to have fun ?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> A bit ironic that Yusaku Maezawa wants the mission to be about "World Peace" when the $200+ million he most likely spent could be better served on Earth. Just call it what it is, a wish to be part of something bigger.

<comment><USER22> This letter, written by the former NASA director Stuhlinger answers this question IMHO perfectly:

[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore- space.html?...](http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore- space.html?m=1)

<comment><USER23> You asking man that job and paycheck depends on spending large amount of public money not to defend spending it on its projects?

Rockets dont feed people, a billion pounds or rice do! Otoh, great letter indeed!

<comment><USER6> Weather satellites, communications satellites, ground resource survey satellites, improved weather and climate models based on lessons learned by analysing the atmospheres of other planets. These have all boosted agricultural productivity on earth, putting more food into more mouths more cheaply.

<comment><USER23> In a matter of few days? Cause as far as I know human can survive without food for maximum of 10 days.

You argument make sense if we take human out of equation. Then we shouldn't be feeding poor AT ALL, given 1,000 years of founding tech with 100% budget would definitely save more lives.. eventually.

Edit: put it in other words: somebody is dying of hunger today so we can fund better technology for tomorrow, sure. Let's just hope its not me or you starving, if that kind of argument helps you sleep at night.

<comment><USER6> Nobody can grow a crop of rice from scratch in 10 days either. Agriculture intrinsically is a long term process requiring multi-year or multi-decade long investments. It's not a case of feeding people now OR investing in being able to feed them in the future. You have to balance both.

It's is entirely possible to fund agricultural development and space technology, and balance the two to complement each other. Space technology has a proven track record of massive technological and humanitarian benefits. Why are you complaining about it, instead of say people wasting hundreds of billions each year on Hollywood movies and TV shows, or many other unproductive activities which we spend more on than space.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Elon Musk and his companies are master in unveiling and announcing visions but not in delivering. I wonder if there is a special word for that in marketing... let's see if they will make it till 2023... wish them luck though.

<comment><USER25> Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that SpaceX is regularly delivering and returning cargo to and from the ISS and is the major launch provider for commercial sattelites. Also, the F9Heavy had its maiden flight this year.

Tesla is not only selling the Model S and X for many years, and has with the Model 3 in the meantime the best-selling electrical car in the US.

So how are they not delivering?

As rocket science is.. rocket science, I do expect delays on the schedule. Especially safety concerns can easily make a development schedule slip. Yet, the SpaceX schedule slips seem to be small compared to other space ventures. The production of the first BFS prototype is under way, we are going to see the first test hops next year.

<comment><USER26> It is probably fair to say that their promises are massive, making their under delivery still impressive.

<comment><USER27> Promise to the stars, delivery to the moon? ... This idiom is better in my native language.

<comment><USER28> It's still pretty good in English.

(If you wanted something that was a bit more polished, you could say _" Promise the stars, deliver the moon."_ or as a complete sentence, _" They promised the stars, then delivered the moon."_)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How browsers position floats - <AUTHOR> https://float-layout.glitch.me/ <comment><AUTHOR> For reference: [https://twitter.com/notwaldorf/status/984049057801830402](https://twitter.com/notwaldorf/status/984049057801830402)</comment>


How to Pitch your Product Onstage - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fandrop.com/how-to-pitch-your-product/

<comment><USER2> I just needed this information as I have to write a 50 sec elevator pitch by Friday ! Thanks

</comment><comment><USER3> Great Article! Chris Lipp is a great speaker!</comment>


Researchers shut down AI that invented its own language - <AUTHOR> http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/a-step-closer-to-skynet-ai-invents-a-language-humans-can-t-read/article/498142 <comment><USER2> It's interesting to me to think if a bot could create it's own language it wouldn't be a far stretch to create an undetectable language inside the constructs of another. If those outputs are used for inputs to other systems it'd be a clever way to propagate.</comment>


Japanese Travel Tips for Visiting America - <AUTHOR> http://mentalfloss.com/article/55140/10-japanese-travel-tips-visiting-america <comment><USER2> My travel agent once gave me a guide for visiting the US. I wish I had saved it. It was a combination of decent advice, keen cultural insight, and utterly whacked-out ravings. (Relatedly, this is broadly true of much writing about Japan in the US.)

The thing which sticks with me most is, in a note about US tipping culture (an utterly foreign concept in Japan), the line "Many Americans may require a calculator to determine what 20% of $18 is. It is unwise to offer to assist."

<comment><USER3> It is so very true, though. Over the years I've had to teach my "trick" for figuring out tips without a calculator to pretty much all of my friends (the spiel: 'move the decimal one place to the left; double that number'). I was always surprised by how magical it appeared to them :|

<comment><USER4> Even easier (and better for your karma and the server's budget): round the bill up to the next 10 dollar increment, _then_ do this trick ( _and_ add a buck).

Also, never use the pre-tax amount, cheapskates!

<comment><USER5> You're supposed to use the pre-tax amount, and doing what is normal, paying 15% of the pre-tax amount, doesn't make you a cheapskate, it makes you normal. You don't get bonus points for paying extra money to someone you'll likely never see again.

<comment><USER4> Well, it may depend on where you're eating, but at many restaurants, the wait staff is paid well below the normal minimum wage, and your 15% tip on the pre- tax bill is supposed to make up the difference. And it often does.

However, personally, I believe that the minimum wage is far too low, and that wait staff in particular should be paid more than my notional "correct" minimum wage as a _base_ rate. So the way I look at it is that if I had my way and the staff were paid appropriately, the cost of eating at the restaurant would necessarily go up. If I truly believe what I say I believe, then I should be willing to pay more for the same product. And I am. So I do.

This is one of just a few areas of American's lives where we have some power over how well the service workers we rely on are paid. And so I tip according to how I believe they should be compensated.

<comment><USER5> Do you ever bring up your beliefs that the wait staff is underpaid with the management?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The optimism thing gets me every time.

Gross generalisation time: I've met very few Americans I disliked as individuals, but an awful lot that in groups become intolerable. A lot of it seems to be that the barrier for nonsensical optimism creeps lower with each extra member added to the group until absolute irrationality reigns supreme. If you try to burst this bubble you are screwed, and the only thing to do is walk away and hope to be far enough away that when it blows up you're not in the blast radius.

The thing is one time out of ten they're right and the cynics among us are wrong, and you have to love them for that. As Churchill is often quoted as saying you can always trust the Americans to do the right thing, once they've tried every other possibility.

<comment><USER7> Everybody comes to America to make their dreams come true. They cling to that optimism to hold on to their silly dreams when the odds are against them. Naturally, the culture reflects this. We're delusional. I notice a similar optimism on Hacker News. Everyone's going for a piece of the gold rush.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The first link to the source is actually all about tipping, which I'm surprised didn't make it onto the list. While American style tipping is odd to me as a European, it just feels even odder the longer I live in Japan (where there is literally no tipping, I couldn't even tip if I wanted to). Quite hard to explain this whole concept to Japanese (that were never in the US) sometimes.

EDIT: So is the third link. Well not entirely, but the first half.

<comment><USER9> Honestly even after traveling to America several times I don't understand why this practice is still going on. It's just annoying for everyone (the employee, and the client) and a cause for embarrassment. In Europe we tip people when we get extra good service from them,, so that tipping feels special. That's the way it should be.

<comment><USER5> Tipping is a tax dodge for restaurants. It allows the restaurant to pay their employees a miserably low wage, like $2-$3 hour, and only have to pay social security taxes on that amount. If you're a little skeptical, check out who the big lobby groups lobbying against minimum wage hikes - restaurant lobbies.

<comment><USER10> That's up to the state. In Washington, restaurant workers are required to pay the regular minimum wage (currently $9.32/hour), with none of that comprised of tips.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The grocery checkout is a related to car culture. In America you shop for the month since you can fit it all in the trunk. Items are sold in bigger boxes, and you get beer by the 18 pack. When I was in Japan I shopped every day, just getting what I could carry in one hand on the train. One Sapporo and some rice makes for short checkout.

<comment><USER12> > and you get beer by the 18 pack.

I really don't mean to come off as snobbish, but, what kind of beer is worth drinking that comes in 18 packs? I'm not sure I've ever seen anything but cans of alcoholic water in that configuration.

<comment><USER13> That is a bit snobbish. Nobody should have to apologize for their beverage of choice.

<comment><USER14> Why not? If something is worth doing, it's worth doing right.

<comment><USER15> Do you optimize your choice of cups? Of USB cables? Brake fluid in your car? How far do you go to get the perfect sugar?

I get my olive oil from an electrical hardware store around the corner from where I work - [http://mroliveoil.com/page19.htm](http://mroliveoil.com/page19.htm) \- how far do you go to get yours?

Lots of things are worth doing - often unavoidably so - but that doesn't mean you need to optimize each and every one of them until they're "right".

<comment><USER14> > _Do you optimize your choice of cups? Of USB cables? Brake fluid in your > car? How far do you go to get the perfect sugar?_

No, I don't "optimize" everything, but I do optimize a lot of stuff. If you like beer enough to consume 16 cans a week, then it sounds like something worth optimizing.

In general most things diet related are quite important to leave to chance. And if fun is involved too, then optimizing them can be fun too. You don't have to be OCD about it, just to try different brands and experiment.

> _I get my olive oil from an electrical hardware store around the corner from > where I work how far do you go to get yours?_

Hmm, that's a bad example, as we value olive oil very much in my country, so I even have my own olive trees and produce my oil in cooperation with the village mill. Well, my parents do at the moment, as I live abroad now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The utility of "air quotes" for English-as-a-second-language people is a neat idea, actually. It's often hard to get sarcasm across in a language you're not totally fluent in because either you don't get the tone of voice right or listeners will assume you didn't mean the tone of voice anyway. An out-of-band gesture is a nice unmistakable signal which avoids that issue entirely.

<comment><USER17> Is that just an American thing, or an English speaking thing in general?

I didn't realize how second nature it was until I used it in Japan a few times- and noticed the usual effect was not achieved. I don't think I ever tried explaining it to anyone though.

<comment><USER18> Air-quotes would be understood as sarcasm in many other Anglosphere countries like the UK and Ireland.

Remember the USA produces a lot of TV & film that's watched in the rest of the Anglosphere, so we'd be familiar with US speaking patterns like that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This guy definitely did not get enough exposure to American food. It's a huge country with a vast variety of regional cuisine as well as international dishes melded by the immigrants to match the American tastes.

<comment><USER20> I went to grad school in Boston. Many foreign students complained about how homogeneous American culture is, how there are no restaurants besides McDonalds and Burger King, etc. But most of them formed these impressions by driving, or taking a bus, to NYC and back. If you don't get off the freeways, you really don't see what real life is like.

Similarly, I visited a friend in France once. On the way there, I took the TGV from Paris. I don't remember anything special about that leg of the trip, and learned nothing about France. On the way back, we drove, and passed through a bunch of little towns. I have a fond memory of helping a boater open a gate to a canal lock, and I still have a strong impression of how contained French villages are compared to American ones.

<comment><USER21> I would argue that NYC is anything but homogeneous, especially the food.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've noticed every country I visit thinks walking down the street in the US is a dangerous activity, getting assaulted is routine, murders are common, etc.

fact is, violent crime is way down since the 1990s. Not saying current levels are acceptable, but it sure isn't as bad as it is perceived.

<comment><USER23> There are 10 times more murders per capita in the US than my home country.

An entire order of magnitude makes one stop and think.

If I offered you a drive in two different cars, and one was an order of magnitude more likely to burst into flames - which one would you choose?

<comment><USER24> _There are 10 times more murders per capita in the US than my home country._

I live in Oakland, CA. A very dangerous place according to statistics. In reality, much of the crime here is in the "bad" parts of town, which I rarely travel to/through. I said "much". There are occasional murders outside the bad parts. They're rare, though.

Even people that live outside of Oakland but fairly close (Concord, 40 minutes by car) have this idea that gunslingers run amok in Oakland and it's incredibly unsafe. That is, until they actually come here a lot (for work, say).

I walk about 1 hour per day in Oakland (that's my commute from home to work). I've been doing this for 13 years. I've never seen one act of violence.

So, statistics can be misleading.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome)

</comment><comment><USER26> 'horse laughing' is an hilarious concept. I had noticed this in the international students at my university, how the japanese would always cover their mouths. Curious habit.

<comment><USER27> Assuming you are American, some segments of your society cover their mouths when saying "shit". That's more curious.

<comment><USER28> There are a bunch of reasons that inform that. On TV, they used to have censor bars over people's mouths as well as "bleeping" what they said. So putting your hand over your mouth emphasizes the obscenity - plus it's funnier :) Also, from a distance no one can see your lips so it gives some plausible deniabilty. It can also make the outburst quieter, which helps when you're fake-yelling.

<comment><USER27> By the responses I got, I was starting to think that I am the only one who noticed it.

I wonder why it hasn't caught on with other racial groups though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is hilarious - I thought it was a joke article at first like the Daily Mash. I can't imagine what the author would think of the UK or Europe. The Russian article linked at the end of this one is even more ridiculous.

<comment><USER30> As a Russian, it is spot on (well, except for "Did you know that bribes are illegal in America" bit)

<comment><USER31> > "When Americans are talking, they might put their foot on a nearby chair, or > even a table. They might cross their legs so that one foot rests on the > opposite knee. In American culture, it is considered an acceptable norm, but > often causes irritation in other countries."

I'm very curious about this one - I can see putting a foot on a nearby chair/table could come across poorly, but crossing your legs by resting your foot on your knee?

<comment><USER32> I'm not sure about the Russkies, but I seem to recall that showing the bottom of your shoe to someone is insulting in the Middle East (?).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> This article was an interesting read. It highlights a lot of the positives of American culture. Sometimes it's good to hear such things. Thank you, I needed that.

</comment><comment><USER34> Is it really possible that American driving manners are better than Japanese ones? That _has_ to be a mistranslation or embellishment.

I might believe it of other Asian nations, where traffic lanes and rules are more suggestions than anything else, but I cannot believe that Japanese drivers are anything like the aggressive, presumptuous, arrogant, frankly insane drivers we have here. And I count myself in their number!

<comment><USER35> Pittsburgh drivers are shockingly polite. Moved from here to New Jersey, then back again. Was hard to adjust coming back, with the person across from you at an intersection patiently waiting for you to go first.

<comment><USER36> "The Pittsburgh Left" is very common practice there, which is to give the right of way to the opposite car in the intersection that is turning left. Definitely a much more relaxed and polite driving environment than anywhere on the east/west coasts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love the sarcasm how-to, but I wonder what the Japanese think of western European meal practices if they find a 40-minute dinner to be extravagant.

</comment><comment><USER37> >4\. Nobody is impressed by how much you can drink. In fact, shame on you.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case in UK. People love to talk about how much they can drink, and love to reel off an exact list of everything they drank the previous night like a list of achievements.

(in my experience of my peers throughout my life up to and including the age of 32)

Binge drinking in the UK is a huge problem.

[http://www.alcoholpolicy.net/2012/06/statistics-on- alcohol-e...](http://www.alcoholpolicy.net/2012/06/statistics-on-alcohol- england-2012-confirms-continuing-upward-admissions-trend.html)

[http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/02February/Pages/Binge- drinking-...](http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/02February/Pages/Binge-drinking- rates-could-be-higher-than-thought.aspx)

[https://catalogue.ic.nhs.uk/publications/public- health/alcoh...](https://catalogue.ic.nhs.uk/publications/public- health/alcohol/alco-eng-2013/alc-eng-2013-rep.pdf)

<comment><USER38> That one was somewhat overstated. It entirely depends on what circles you move in. I know plenty of people that brag on their drinking, and/or like to deride others for being lightweight. Surely there is a large contrast between Japan and the USA on this matter, and the article writer was probably influenced by that. It certainly would be safer to act as the article suggests, because it is true for many situations, and the average tourist (that would need this guide) wouldn't be able to suss out the subtleties.

<comment><USER39> As you mentioned, in some circles being able to drink a _lot_ on somewhat-rare occasions is something that would win respect. Being able to handle your alcohol is an important aspect in some American circles.

Drinking a lot and drinking often is mostly frowned upon. Being drunk outside of a social engagement designated specifically for getting drunk is almost universally frowned upon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Tipping puts the burden of service quality feedback on the customer rather than the business manager. It also encourages the server to increase the customer's bill total. Most of the benefits of the practice are exclusive to the business, with no benefit to customer or employee.

Restaurants _could_ pay servers a commission or bonus based on the bill total or for specific items on the customer's bill. Customers _could_ be asked to rate the service they received on a scale from 0 to 10 instead of calculating a percentage of their bill total. But tradition is a tough thing to fight.

<comment><USER41> You don't _have_ to tip. So you do get a certain minimum service. In Beijing, no tips required or expected. But, unless you're at a Western-style place, or HaiDiLao, no service expected, either. Should service be required (ordering more items, correcting something, requesting something essential that was forgotten, paying the bill, etc.), yelling "fuwuyuan!" ("waiter"!) loudly will often, but not necessarily, procure you service. So that tip does buy you something.

20% extra for standard service, though, is ridiculous, and I hate it. Nor do I do 20%--even fancy places only do 18% gratuity, at least, the last time I was at one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I expected that this article would just be another way to feed into negative stereotypes about Japanese. While a lot of it is just the typical raving, there are one or two items which I would say are pretty spot on. Their vending machines _do_ put ours to shame. Also, as an American, you don't realize how much we use sarcasm until you travel abroad and realize people aren't getting it. It's nice, actually. Sarcasm gets old :P.

</comment><comment><USER43> God bless America and their damn good car manners

</comment><comment><USER44> Bring a bottle of Tabasco sauce. Seriously, I love Japanese food but after 2 weeks I was dying for some kick (other than wasabi).

<comment><USER45> I think you got confused. This is for people visiting America from Japan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> The bit about laughter surprised me the most. I had no idea it was considered embarrassing to laugh publicly in Japan.

<comment><USER47> They're also spot on about how we perceive Japanese women laughing - when they turn away and cove their mouths, it does look sneaky.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Good car manners? This person has clearly never driven in Austin.

<comment><USER49> Compared to other countries, Austin is a paradise of calm, reasonable drivers. For example, it's fairly common in Asia (though not in Japan AFAIK) for a traffic light to be viewed as a suggestion rather than an absolute command. I've been in a taxi that was rammed and pushed through an intersection by the truck behind it when our driver didn't react quickly enough to a gap in oncoming traffic. The taxi driver wasn't even particularly mad. It apparently happens all the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> And the #1 tip for United States-ers visiting Japan? If you're a woman, burn your dirty underwear to keep every male above the horizon from trying to sniff it.

</comment><comment><USER50> 11\. Never, ever get any kind of sick.

Our medical care is of lower quality than in most OECD countries, inefficiently delivered, and catastrophically expensive. (Rates of medical error are quite high, because younger doctors-- esp. residents-- work extreme hours.) An ER visit can run you $5,000 or more. Appendicitis goes into the $50,000 range.

<comment><USER51> Then why do people from around the world flock to American hospitals?

As one example, the Texas Medical Center, one of the best in the world, treats 18,000 foreign patients a year who've traveled there specifically for the quality of care.

<comment><USER49> Perhaps it should be revised, then, to say,

"If you're going to get sick, make sure it's in a place like Austin, Cleveland, Rochester, Baltimore, or New York that has a great hospital. And make sure that you get taken to the premier hospital in the region (e.g. don't let somebody take you to Kings County instead of New York Presbyterian). Be prepared to pay considerably for care at these facilities. Quality and cost are highly variable overall."</comment></comment></comment>