FiveThirtyEight to Partner with New York Times - <AUTHOR> http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/06/fivethirtyeight-to-partner-with-new.html

<comment><USER2> A big congrats to Nate Silver; this is the journalism equivalent of being bought by Google or Microsoft.

</comment><comment><USER3> If this means FiveThirtyEight goes behind a NYT paywall in the next six months or so, it may not be great for anyone other than the principals of 538.

<comment><AUTHOR> I give more credit to Nate Silver's lawyer than that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think this is a real win for the readers of both too.

538 has some of the best analysis and NYT has some of the best info graphics. This could be a beautiful and informative acquisition.

<comment><USER5> Infographics (and the Times...) trend towards informing the uninformed, 538 is strongly geared towards the already-savvy. I can't see a mix that doesn't dilute one or the other and it seems clear who will wear the pants if you will.

That said I'm happy for Nate and don't begrudge him one iota; I'm sad that I'll likely be losing a magnificent resource but it's his blood sweat and tears and it's his to do with as he pleases.

<comment><USER6> _I can't see a mix that doesn't dilute one or the other_

There's no reason to be pessimistic at this stage. Fivethirtyeight did some coverage of the UK election for The Guardian (major British newspaper) and it wasn't particularly diluted that I noticed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Way to go, Nate Silver. I hope you stick with it; I've consistently appreciated your analysis of politics.

</comment><comment><USER8> Headline: New York Times manages to slow slide into irrelevance.

News you can use!</comment>


Show HN: My first screencast. 2 hours spent for every minute of video - <AUTHOR> http://customer.io/welcome-friends.html

<comment><USER2> The background music is a little distracting. It would be nice if it were at the same volume the whole time.

Other than that, I wouldn't have minded if you talked faster, but I have an attention deficit. :)

</comment><comment><USER3> The sound sync looks to be off a bit.</comment>


D'Artagnan and Internet, or working on the problem of bad links  - <AUTHOR> http://www.viva64.com/en/b/0075/

<comment><USER2> I'd have to say that Microsoft is almost the worst offender with broken links that I've ever come across.

Only GitHub surpasses it.</comment>


Classical Cryptography Will Survive Quantum Computers - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/-how-classical-cryptography-will-survive-quantum-computers <comment><USER2> Quantum computers will be good at a specific range of problems where interference can be taken advantage of. It drives me crazy how many people think they just go into a superposition and calculate all outcomes at the same time. It doesn't work that way.

And we still have to scale them with proper error correction. Who knows what the timeline for this looks like. Anyone who assumes "Moore's Law" isn't taking into consideration the fact that scaling here isn't as simple as multiplying the number of transistors in parallel.

To be useful they have to achieve entanglement between new qubits. Plus error correction and isolation have to also be scaled with that.

<comment><USER3> SMBC has a great comic on how quantum computers work [https://www.smbc- comics.com/comic/the-talk-3](https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-talk-3)

<comment><USER2> That's a good comic, thanks!

"Wait a minute... That means a qubit corresponds to a unit vector in two- dimensional Hilbert space!"

And quantum gates/operations on qubits are just unitary linear transformations on those vector spaces...

<comment><USER4> An unintuitive but important fact is that n qubits do not correspond to n unit vectors in two-dimensional Hilbert space (but rather to one unit vector in 2^n-dimensional Hilbert space).

<comment><USER5> And that's how entanglement arises, presumably.

<comment><USER6> I think you have the right idea but the wrong terminology. A n qubit system requires amplitudes (probabilities) for all 2^n possible basis states. For example, the representation we can give to a 2-qubit system is just a probability (technically an amplitude) associated with each of states 00, 01, 10, and 11. It's not really fancy or hard to see how this increases exponentially.

Here's an example with classical randomness (and has a close quantum analogue). If you have two closed boxes with coins in them and shake both around so that the coins flip around in the in such a way that they land 50/50 on each side, you could represent that state of the system as [1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4], that is, each possible state of the system of two coins (heads head, heads tail, tail head, and tail tail), has 1/4 chance of being observed when you open the boxes.

Note that entanglement refers to the idea that two bits can be correlated. That is, the state of one is correlated with the state of another in some sense. In the example I just gave, the coins are not entangled, since the observation of one of the coins does not affect the probability of what the other coin could be. In mathematics we say this is possible if the state of the 2-coin system [1/4 1/4 1/4 1/4] can be written as a tensor product of the constituent 1-coin systems [1/2 1/2] and [1/2 1/2], which it can (entanglement refers to a state where this factorization isn't possible).

That said, we can achieve entanglement with the coins too, by somehow getting a state vector like [1/2 0 0 1/2] (50% chance that both coins are heads and 50% chance both are tails), which cannot be written as a tensor product of two 1-coin states. Moreover, if you open one box and see its a heads coin, you know the other box must also have a head coin. That's what is meant by 'correlation'. To product such a state of the coin boxes, I guess you would need a third party or something to put the two coins in the boxes and delivering them to you.

My conclusion is, entanglement doesn't have to do too much with the exponential size of representation n-qubit states, and I hope I gave a good example of what entanglement kind of really means. While (randomized) classical analogues to quantum effects are not really perfect, I think they demonstrate these effects more understandably.

<comment><USER4> Parent is correct — entanglement is exactly due to the fact that there exist more vectors in Hilbert space than tensor products (~ tuples) of unit vectors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm a little surprised we didn't have decent quantum-resistant crypto even 20 years ago. All our public key crypto is based on the hardness of integer factoring and the discrete logarithm problem, neither of which are known to be NP-complete or NP-hard. Quantum computers can efficiently solve those two problems, but they haven't been shown to be able to handle any NP-complete problems. There have been previous attempts to make cryptosystems based on NP- complete problems like the knapsack problem, but never became as popular as RSA. Anyone have any guesses why we didn't see any popularly used crypto based on the hardness of, say, 3SAT or the knapsack problem?

<comment><USER8> People tried and it didn't work very well, see e.g.: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_cryptosystems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_cryptosystems)

It seems it's just really hard to create a new public key crypto system, so people sticked to what works as long as the quantum threat didn't sound too scary. Now it sounds scary enough that people look for alternatives.

<comment><USER9> To add to this:

It's still sort of just scary in the abstract. There's no evidence that a quantum computer that could attack even weak incarnations of DH or RSA are within the realm of feasibility, and if things break in engineering's favor over the next decade we still probably won't be there. It's possible that me might never get there!

The big problem is that there's a chance (a low chance) that we might get there within the (long) lifespan of our existing public key algorithms. There's a mindset in cryptography engineering that we design for secrets that must be kept for many decades. So: the "plausible" threat we face here is decades-hence retroactive decryption.

It's useful to keep this in mind when doing _security_ engineering, because PQ isn't "free": we have to trade things off to get it. It's possible that the modern PQ schemes we're pursuing will have grave flaws that put them within reach of _classical_ cryptanalysis within just a few years. Even more importantly, it's not only possible but _likely_ that there are implementation errors --- like using schoolbook RSA, or failing to validate a curve point --- that we won't fully understand for a decade after we adopt a new PQ scheme.

And, just to make things more fun, we're not looking at 1 PQ scheme but at 3-4, some of them entirely unrelated to each other.

Against all this you should also keep in mind the other forces that push PQ to the front of the field of cryptography's consciousness. Most serious cryptography is done academically. PQ has created a gold rush of paper topics. Naturally, it's going to seem super important if you pay attention to IACR ePrints.

If what you're trying to protect are conventional financial transactions, or the integrity of applications running today that will have been rebooted at least once before 2050, there's a good chance that PQ is bad engineering for you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The Post-Quantum Crypto Summer School lectures cover this in more detail if anybody is interested [https://2017.pqcrypto.org/school/schedule.html](https://2017.pqcrypto.org/school/schedule.html) specifically the Quantum Algorithms lectures and notes by Ronald de Wolf.

</comment><comment><USER11> For those who would like to get a better idea of the cryptography described in this article, here is an overview of the usually encountered computational hardness problems in lattice-based cryptography:

1\. Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) - Given a lattice with a basis _B_ , find the shortest vector in the lattice.

2\. Closest Vector Problem (CVP) - Given a lattice with a basis _B_ and some target vector _t_ , find the point _v_ which is closest to _t_.

3\. Shortest Independent Vector Problem (SIVP) - Given a lattice basis _B_ in Z^( _n_ x _n_ ), find _n_ linearly independent lattice vectors [ _s_ 1, ..., _s_ n], where _s_ i is in the lattice of basis _B_ for all _i_.

4\. Learning With Errors (LWE) - Given integral starting parameters _n_ , _m_ and _q_ , with a probability distribution _X_ on Z _q_ , distinguish between an input pair ( _A_ , _v_ ) and a vector _e_ in (Z _q_ )^ _m_. _A_ is chosen uniformly from (Z _q_ )^( _m_ x _n_ ) and _v_ is (typically) chosen uniformly from (Z _q_ )^ _m_.

In other words, try to recover the secret key _s_ in (Z _q_ )^ _n_ by examining a sequence of approximate linear equations. The error introduced is what makes this computationally hard, otherwise it could be done in polynomial time using Gaussian elimination.

5\. Learning Parity With Noise (LPN) - Given a secret length _l_ , a noise rate 0 < _r_ < 0.5 and the number of samples _q_ , find the random _l_ -bit secret string _s_ in (Z2)^ _l_ using _q_ samples. This is the search problem version; there is also a decisional variant.

There are good surveys that cover lattice-based cryptography in general or particular computational problems in greater depth; for example, try [1], [2], or [3].

________________________________________

1\. Peikert, Chris: A Decade of Lattice-Based Cryptography - [https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~cpeikert/pubs/lattice- survey.pdf](https://web.eecs.umich.edu/~cpeikert/pubs/lattice-survey.pdf)

2\. Micciancio, Regev: Lattice-Based Cryptography (chapter in _Post-Quantum Cryptography_ )

3\. Regev, Oded: The Learning With Errors Problem - [https://cims.nyu.edu/~regev/papers/lwesurvey.pdf](https://cims.nyu.edu/~regev/papers/lwesurvey.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER12> Correct me if I'm wrong but The article doesn't describe how 'classical' cryptography will survive quantum computers. It merely describes how it will break RSA and then lightly covers a potential alternative quantum proof public private key cryptography scheme.

Misleading title?

<comment><USER11> This is a good point. I found the article's content disappointing, to be honest. I think it hit a bit of an uncanny valley - it was too shallow to be comprehensive for a technical math/computer science audience, but too deep (and emphasizing the wrong things) to cover the ground in a way that would be appropriate for a non-technical audience.

If I were to write an article like this, I would probably choose a more explicit audience from the outset, then cover either a depth-first or breadth- first approach to the subject. A breadth-first approach would be good for a non-technical audience: here are the general types of cryptosystems, here are the ones threatened by quantum computers, here are the ones that are not, here are the current proposals for post-quantum resistant cryptosystems.

On the other hand, were I writing for a technical audience I would assume an understanding of why quantum computers threaten classical cryptography (and why e.g. symmetric encryption is mostly safe), then take a deeper look at each of the post-quantum proposals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Which elliptic curves are quantum resistant?

[https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/35482/which- ellip...](https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/35482/which-elliptic- curves-are-quantum-resistant/35486)

<comment><USER9> None of them, in the conventional sense. The ECDLP itself is breakable with Shor's Algorithm more easily, in experimental simulation, than RSA.

Curves still have a role in PQ systems through _isogenies_ , which are mappings between entire curves. But those schemes are very different than the elliptic curves we use today; you can think of them as systems that exchange whole curves rather than curve points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Why can't we just keep on using RSA with a huge key?

<comment><USER15> Classical computers take a polynomial amount of time (in key size) to perform RSA but exponential amount of time (in key size) to break RSA. Quantum computers can break RSA in polynomial time.

For classical systems, the cost to break RSA grows much faster than the cost to perform it, so we can always outpace more powerful adversaries with a less powerful computer. This is not true for quantum machines. I cannot produce a key size that will be small enough that I can work with it but large enough that it is secure against attack.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Interesting that sha256 is mentioned as approved by the government, didn't the NSA invent this encryption? Also I seem to recall another article on HN this year about the 1st sha1 collision being found? Maybe it won't take a QC to break after all. My mistake just reread, it AES256 mentioned sorry.

<comment><USER11> SHA-256 (SHA-2) is incomparable to SHA-1. The (first) successful SHA-1 collision attack executed by Google et al earlier this year implies absolutely nothing about the computational hardness of SHA-2.

There is no evidence whatsoever that quantum computers will break SHA-256; I'd be willing to personally stake essentially all of my assets on the bet that it won't be broken within our lifetimes. I also cannot think of a credible cryptographer off the top of my head who has voiced the opinion that quantum computers pose a threat to the SHA-2 family (or SHA-3, for that matter).

At best I could see a complexity reduction, but nothing in polynomial time. Cryptographic primitives have such attacks published against them (and survive them) all the time.

<comment><USER16> Ok, first off I didn't say it would be broken by a QC but that is besides the point. As a person who has been around long enough to remember when people stated our computers would never need more that 640K, I would never stake all my assets on what will come in the future, but maybe your not long for this world..happy new year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The article neglects to mention the strange behavior of quantum computers that allow them to seek ALL possible keys simultaneously.

<comment><USER18> "If you take just one piece of information from this blog: Quantum computers would not solve hard search problems instantaneously by simply trying all the possible solutions at once." \- Scott Aaronson

[https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/](https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/)</comment></comment>


Admitting it was 'dumb,' EA says - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/09/admitting-it-was-dumb-ea-says-it-has-added-simcity-servers-and-will-give-players-a-free-game/ <comment><USER2> This is somewhat outside my wheelhouse, but don't you do load testing on something like this before release? Did they think no one would want to play it? It seems totally tractable to write some bot players and unleash them in a swarm on your servers.

<comment><USER3> First, they've claimed the load was higher than they expected. Second, it's very difficult to create a realistic test.</comment></comment>


Good way to find a passionate early stage startup looking for innovation help? - <AUTHOR>

The last few years I've been working for a major Silicon Valley software company, but have become frustrated by the relatively slow pace of innovation and lack of passion among co-workers. I'm itching to get back in at the ground floor at a startup (I've had previous success), but not sure where to start as most of the "small" company opportunities that come my way are pre-IPO companies that are already hundreds of employees deep. Due to previous career success, I am in a position where immediate compensation is not as important to me as finding an opportunity I am passionate about. I want to be given a mandate to help shape innovation strategy at a very early stage.
What I have to offer is three-fold:
1. Nearly fifteen years of technology Product Management experience, including the perspective and lessons that come from helping build a successful startup in the past, as well as managing successful enterprise products and most recently a $2 billion dollar Consumer software business.
2. I'm really interested in innovation as a discipline and would like to put into practice a framework for discovering the hidden underlying needs that can catapult an 'ok' technology into a world-class success. Net-net, if given the mandate, I believe that I can save a startup from going through years of costly 'fail-fast' pivots.
3. Because of previous startup success, I'm in a position that I can accept some ownership in lieu of initial salary, if the situation is right: i.e. focus on innovation is a major priority and I believe in the cause.
How might I find early stage startups in the Bay Area who'd be interested in exploring a potential relationship? <comment><USER2> I commend you for being passionate about innovation. I share the same passion; I firmly believe that innovation drives the future. I think there are a few different ways you can approach this, but it depends on what you want to accomplish. I find the idea of 'Innovation as a Discipline' to be interesting, and perhaps something that might help a large range of Startups spanning multiple industries. Making a comparison to fail-fast pivots alludes to the possibility that 'Innovation as a Discipline' may represent a new approach or methodology towards Product Development. If this is the case, you may find yourself in a position to help a large number of Startups. However, if you are looking to work with a few specific Startups and develop Products (not methodologies), then my recommendation is to get involved with the Local Startup Ecosystem. Specifically, events like Hackathon's or Startup Weekend types of Events. Those are the types of Events where you will find a large number of Groups/Teams working on Ideas and Products at the Ground Floor. I imagine you could easily find a few different Groups/Teams working with Ideas and products that you find interesting.

I recently decided to try an IdeaLab approach (or something close). My new approach is to conceptually design new and innovative products, validate the conceptual products with potential customers, and then build teams to execute the conceptual products. So it's kind of backwords, you are working on the product before you build the team. But then you build the team and work on the product. I'm interested to see how this turns out!

<comment><AUTHOR> I have what I believe to be an excellent innovation methodology, but it's tailored to more established organizations with significant means.

The methodology involves talking to potential customers before you hire a team of developers and even before you brainstorm ideas or design anything. I haven't tried to apply it at a startup, but there should be no reason why the core concepts can't be leveraged by startups. I suspect there may be certain nuances and limitations specific to applying it at early-stage startups that need to be worked out. So what I'd like to do is help develop a few early- stage product successes to act as a proof-of-concept to iron out these details. I just sort of need a willing participant or two to experiment on. Of course, in return, I think they'll benefit immensely.

So, how do I find out about hackathons or startup events?

<comment><USER2> The best way to get involved with Local Hackathons and Startup Events is to get involved with the Local Startup Ecosystem. The last time I was in The Valley, I found Meetup.Com to be an awesome source of Startup Related Events and Functions. That might be a good place to start (filter by technology or language). You'll also find that some of the more popular Hackathons or Non- Profits have their own Website, such as the TechCrunch Hackathon ([http://techcrunch.com/events/](http://techcrunch.com/events/)), the Launch Hackathon ([http://hackathon.launch.co/](http://hackathon.launch.co/)), or Startup Weekend ([http://www.startupweekend.org](http://www.startupweekend.org)). These are just a few examples, I'm sure there are many more across the World that I don't even know about.

Regarding product methodologies, what you describe sounds somewhat similar to Eric Ries' Lean Startup. I hope it's not offensive to make a comparison, but I think it's good food for thought. The concept of involving customer feedback into the product development process (or any process) is extremely powerful. But I wouldn't doubt that there are different ways to apply that Approach. The Lean Startup is based on a Build, Measure, Learn methodology. What you describe sounds somewhat like a variation; maybe closer to Measure, Learn, Build. Expanding on that, other variations could relate to the number of cycles you consider and the possibility that they can be in different orders to achieve different results. For example; Build, Measure Learn might be a great process for an existing Team to develop a Product based on an existing idea. Another example; Measure, Learn, Build (cycle 1) and then Build, Measure, Learn (cycle 2) might be a good 2 cycle process for an existing Team to develop a Product that does not initially have an idea or direction. And yet another example; Build, Measure Learn, (cycle 1) and then Build, Measure, Learn again might be a good 2 cycle process for Building a Team to develop a Product based on a validated idea. These are all hypothetical of course, but it's interesting to consider. I'm sure there are many different possibilities based on how you apply the concepts. In any event, I wish you well in validating your methodology!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the leads. I've read up a bunch on hackathons. I'm not sure what my role would be at one to be honest... I don't have a team, I'm not an Engineer and it seems like there are two groups who benefit: coders hoping to win a beauty contest in front of investors and investors who see it as a cheap way to find creative labor. Am I wrong? What would I do if I just showed up at one of these? The Launch Festival looks quite interesting though... It's not till Feb, but I'll buy a ticket for sure.

The Lean Startup is a good book -- I read it last night to re-familiarize myself with the ideas. MVP, "getting outside the building", innovation accounting and Measure-Learn-Build are extremely useful concepts. As you suggested, some of my thoughts revolve around the ideal order of the steps. But beyond that, I believe there's more accurately a crucial missing step up front. I have no doubt that he wants you to measure stuff, refine and then re- measure to see if there's better alignment, until you've developed a solid 'customer archetype'. But it seems that you're sort of tainting the initial conversation with prospects by forcing it down the path of discussing what's right and wrong with your MVP. How likely are you to throw it all out and start from scratch if your MVP just isn't cutting it? You have to have serious fortitude to do that, especially if your MVP took many weeks or months to develop. And aren't most prospects just going to think 'inside the box' once you've placed a potential solution in front of them?

So I suspect that what often happens when employing the Build-Measure-Learn paradigm is that either you end up with incremental improvements to existing solutions or eventual success ends up depending on how good you were at really nailing that initial MVP... and that could require Steve Jobs-like intuition or plain luck.

What if you could put a reliable methodology around those crucial, very early conversations with prospects that would lead you to build an MVP that meets their basic needs up front without any kind of super-human foresight or luck and without having to pivot over and over (which I contend is mentally a very hard thing for most people to do)?

To go with the Lean Startup nomenclature, my idea could sort of be summed up as Discover-Build-Measure-Learn, at which point you'd cycle through Build- Measure-Learn after the first iteration.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> You have:

\- no particular financial pressure

\- deep technical skills

\- loads of experience

\- confidence you can succeed

Why waste all of that on a 'relationship' with someone else's startup vs. doing something yourself? It sounds like you should be building something and then looking for people to fill in _your_ gaps not a startup that needs technological-saving (which is unlikely vs. needing users/a valid business model/revenue etc much more than 'perfect code').

<comment><AUTHOR> Appreciate the reply and attempted kick in the pants! I'm certainly not interested in helping anyone 'perfect code' and frankly I'm not the person you'd want to technologically save you anyway, trust me on that!

I have several of my own ideas, but none that I feel are good enough that I'd want to stick my neck out and seed myself at the moment. I'd rather get on board with someone who already has a vision to change the world and then help make it a success. I'm just not sure where to find early stage start-ups. It seems all my connections point to companies where the strategy is already figured out and they just want executors.</comment></comment>


Electric Car owner charged for stealing electricity from school - <AUTHOR> http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2013/12/04/electric-car-owner-charged-theft/3866729/

<comment><USER2> Maybe it's because Canada is so cold (at this exact moment the temperature is minus 20C with a foot or two of snow on the ground) and block heaters in cars were the norm for so long, but just about every parking lot (that isn't in a shopping centre) has electric outlets here. At schools, apartment buildings, etc.... When I park my car at the University there's electric outlets for every single stall (of course nowadays most cars start easily without block heaters).

Electricity is cheap enough that being able to 'plug in' is generally acceptable anywhere, except where explicitly forbidden...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> It's interesting. Putting aside the actual value and concentrating on the behavior. If a driver knew that a school keep gasoline for filling up buses or other purposes and went and topped up his car while his son played tennis he/she would be fully aware that they were stealing. They may still do it, but it wouldn't make the papers and/or they wouldn't act surprised if they were caught "Oh can't anyone take the petrol if they need it?"

<comment><USER3> What is the diference between a car and an iPhone? I could very well see a kid charging his iPhone at soccer practice to call mom for a ride home (or whatever). The issue is a commercial grade of service vs an residential or amateur one. The behaviour (say, recharging your laptop at starbucks) is not inherently _larceny_ ("theft of property") in terms of social norms. Or are you suggesting it should be?

<comment><USER4> My wife will not plug in her iPhone to charge it at work. It all depends on your ethical standards. I, on the other hand, never thought twice about doing this.

EDIT: Didn't think I would have to actually explain this, but here goes: the phone is for her personal use, unlike the computer, monitor, and other things on her desk supplied, along with the electricity, by her employer.

<comment><USER5> If she is using a particularly bright monitor setting that might use more electricity per day than a plugged in phone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I suppose that in nearly every other country in the world, the police would not come, but a staff of the school would simply tell the car owner to just unplug his car and not do it again.

But maybe people like that should be sent in front of a court to give judges some work because the don't have enough work yet. This would be great, steal 5 cents of power, go in front of a court, active the police and the judiciary system, create 1000's $ of invoices, increase the GDP of the country!

<comment><USER7> Just stop with this nonsense.

There's likely more story here than what the article provides. Most likely he had been told before not to plug in, has an unrelated dispute with someone at the school, etc.

Not every story needs to be an excuse to rant against the system.

<comment><USER8> There just seems to be so many of these great little nuggets coming from across the pond. Offhand: "Don't tase me bro"

<comment><USER9> Nothing to see here! Move along!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Let's look at the facts: 5 cents.

The Nissan LEAF gets 3.16 mi/kWh[1]. When plugged into a standard household outlet for 20 minutes you get 1.67 miles of driving (1 hour = 5 miles)[2], which by my calculation is 0.52848101 kWh of electricity. As the elementary school is in CHAMBLEE, Ga. the utility provider is Georgia Power[3]. The highest electricity rate for a school is 10.9269¢ per kWh. So a man got arrested in front of his kids and community for "stealing" $0.0577465918[4].

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#cite_note- CR1211-69](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#cite_note-CR1211-69)

[2][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#cite_note-84](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Leaf#cite_note-84)

[3][http://www.georgiapower.com/pricing/files/rates-and- schedule...](http://www.georgiapower.com/pricing/files/rates-and- schedules/7.00_sch-15.pdf)

[4][http://www.11alive.com/news/article/314666/40/Electric- car-o...](http://www.11alive.com/news/article/314666/40/Electric-car-owner- charged-with-stealing-5-cents-worth-of-juice)

</comment><comment><USER11> Sounds like there's gotta be more to the story. Any sane officer, school, jurisdiction, would have either ignored it or told the guy to knock it off and then left him alone. For there to be an actual arrest, probably either the cop is a raging dickhead (unlikely), the guy was a raging dickhead to the cop (rather more likely), or the guy was involved in some unrelated prior dispute that this is retaliation for. For criminal charges to be filed and not dismissed the first time a DA or judge sees it, it kinda implies either the unrelated dispute or the entire legal system in the area is full of raging dickheads all covering for each other.

<comment><USER9> _...either the cop is a raging dickhead (unlikely)..._

Is this a "privileged" statement?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Already covered on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6844702](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6844702)

</comment><comment><USER13> This sounds like a situation that was just blown out of partition. An officer who cares about the theft of five cents on a single occasion is an officer with too much free time. Does he realize how much his five minutes cost tax payers when he was telling this guy about how he stole? And seriously? Stole! Five cents of electricity from a public school? The guy's a tax payer (assumption), therefore, if you follow the money, somehow he paid for the electricity to begin with. If you take that aside even more, it's better for him to steal five cents of electricity than drive a gasoline car, I'd gladly allow random strangers to charge from my parking lot outlets if it encouraged more people to go green. Considering tax money also gives free electricity to people who cannot afford it, hypothetically, if this guy was on a financial assistance program to pay for his utilities would it still be stealing considering the money is coming from the same place? It's not like five cents would hold either, the moment this is disputed it'd be dropped.

</comment><comment><USER14> 1\. The guy who stole the electricity would want someone to ask before they used his electricity. 2\. I doubt the police officer would arrest anyone in his family for doing something this petty.

Principled thinking would have resolved the conflict before it started.

</comment><comment><USER15> I agree that this person should not have been using the school's electricity to charge his car. But to have him arrested is an extreme over reaction. The punishment does not fit the crime. That is what I take away from this story.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well to be a stickler for detail being arrested isn't the punishment. If he was taken to the police station then let off with a warning that would be his actual punishment. However I agree that it's a rather extreme response from the onsite officer.

<comment> jack-r-abbit _Sgt. Ford says the officer should have arrested Kamooneh on the spot. But he didn 't. Instead, the officer filed a police report. Then 11 days passed, and two deputies showed up at his house in Decatur. [snip] Ford said he sought the arrest warrant after determining that school officials hadn't given Kamooneh permission to plug in his car._

The onsite officer did _exactly_ as he should. He filed a report. And then the officer's boss (Sgt. Ford) got the arrest warrant later. And then 2 other officers made the arrest. So there was more than just one person involved here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> > _charged_

Heh.

<comment><USER17> At least the car owner was not charged with battery.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I know that this person wasn't doing this, but would it be feasible to charge the car up at school, and then once at home use the car as a generator to save on his electricity bill?

</comment><comment><USER19> The journalist needs to put a tiny little bit more effort into it....

The real story is likely something along the lines of the usual labor dispute, or this guy is dating an ex-girlfriend of someone in mgmt, or he filed a complaint and this is the anti-whistleblower reaction.

As a resident of a northern tier state this story from Georgia is weird because most people up here have block heaters and they will plug into any hole it'll fit into. The current draw of a block heater is wildly variable but then again they're wildly more popular. Pretty much, nobody blinks at this behavior as long as you don't do something idiotic/dangerous like run an extension cord across a road/walkway or thru a puddle of water. There's a reason they put those electrical outlets at the base of the lightpost and it's not to encourage stupid extension cord triplines.

</comment><comment><USER20> Your tax dollars at work!</comment>


Ask HN: Help, my $150,000 student debt is ruining my life, and my future  - <AUTHOR> Dear enlightened HN community, I am earnestly seeking as many helpful advice as I can get,  pertaining to the painful state of existence I reside in due to ignorant & impulsive college decisions I made about  a decade ago.
Due to excessive math & science training in high school, I impulsively decided to go to an expensive East Coast Art school to study Art & Design, paid for on entirely borrowed student debt average 40k a year, for 4 years straight. I was extremely financial ignorant at that age, not at all understanding the actual income of those who chooses career in the creative fields.
Straight out of school, I got an entry level marketing job offer. At that point, the job offer was so low, that it would leave me starving after my basic necessities, such as apartment & student debts are paid. I chose instead, to do something riskier, and more entrepreneurial straight out of school, thinking this is the only way I can make the amount of money needed to pay off my student debt + interest on the principle.
One year after, thank god I broke even.
For the past few years,  I have worked in various internet jobs, barely making enough to eat, let alone pay my student debt...
For the last year or so, I tried entrepreneurship again, this time with a bit more experiences & skills, ignoring my student debt completely. The extra money I would have paid for debt, I reinvested in the company.
Now, it's finally getting to that point, where I can ignore my student debt no longer, or else they will pursue legal actions …
After living sub humanly for the past few years, after being harassed everyday to pay a debt that I really can not pay, if I want to eat, for an education that absolutely adds no values to my career, am a bit at the end of my rope.
So dear HN, what should I do to make the situation better, what could I do to make the situation better? <comment><USER3> I have worked in the student loan field. First thing you need to do is contact your loan servicer immediately and work with them about your potential default situation. (Even if you have already gone into default, you can get out of default by getting on a loan rehabilitation program and making 12 consecutive, on-time monthly payments under that plan, so all is not lost.)

Also, look into an income-based repayment plan. These work basically the way you might think they do, in that your payment is based on a percentage of your income. One nice thing about it is that if your income is low enough, your payment can end up being zero. The kicker on the income-based payment plan is that if you make payments for 25 years, the loans go away, regardless of the amount you've payed on them. If you're in for $100K+ and don't have a commensurate income, this can give you back some of your financial life (your debt-to-income ratio is going to be screwed up for the next 25 years, but at least you'll be able to make your loan payments on time).

Bottom line, contact your loan servicer IMMEDIATELY and ask about payment plans that are tied to your actual income. It's your best option. If you just let it go, you'll never see the end of it, as they can attach your bank account, take your tax refund from you, and probably worse.

<comment><USER4> Hi. Can we email you if we have more questions?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This doesn't sound so bad. It has a simple solution.

1\. Get a job, paying as much as you reasonably can.

2\. Live as simply, and as cheaply, as you can.

3\. Pay off your debt.

I don't know what has twice made you think you need to try "something entrepreneurial" as if it'll solve all your money problems, because it probably won't. Leave entrepreneurship for those who aren't in desperate financial straits (e.g. yourself in five years if you can pay off most of this debt in that time).

$150K is a lot of money, but it's not a _lot_ of money. It's a small fraction of your overall life's earnings, if you can swallow your pride, forget everything you've ever read on HN about how being an entrepreneur is the only worthwhile thing in life, and start working for whoever will pay you money.

If that fails, join the military.

<comment><USER6> One caveat for the "join the military" idea. Be VERY careful with what you negotiate with the recruitment office, and be VERY careful with the exact terms your enlistment contract specifies.

I have a good friend who enlisted for a number of reasons after college, and managed to negotiate something like a $60k payment against the principal of his student loans in exchange for his enlistment. Most of these deals don't apply to the principal, and as a result a lot of money winds up as interest which doesn't do the enlistee as much good.

After boot camp, my friend was recommended for immediate OCS and received a commission. This meant he was no longer "enlisted" and the Army considered this as a violation of his contract, so they refused to pay down his loans. After a protracted legal struggle, he wound up getting discharged, but it wasn't easy for him at all and wound up costing him quite a bit of time he's not going to get back.

I know that the plural of anecdote isn't data, but I think there's still a valuable lesson to be learned from this, and I'd hate to see someone else lose years on a false promise.

<comment><USER5> Oh, I didn't even think about the fact that they might pay down his loan debt. I just thought that the military might give him a steady paycheck (and some apparently much-needed discipline while he's at it).

Also, your friend decided to get discharged because they offered him a much better and more lucrative job as an officer rather than as an enlisted grunt + $60K bonus?

<comment><USER6> He enlisted for personal reasons, not for monetary reasons. He was looking for a challenge, and thought that enlisting and kicking ass in the military would help him get that. Money was never an issue - he will make plenty of money.

He left in the middle of a full-ride to law school, and when he left he was top of his class. The second person on the curve had something like a 65% average. He wound up getting the same scholarship back and is now putting up similar numbers. He's going to be fine monetarily speaking.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > _after being harassed everyday to pay a debt_

It's actually quite simple to get debt collectors to stop calling. Just tell them they are no longer allowed to. It's illegal to call someone if they requested to stop calling. Most people simply don't know this and take the abuse.

I did this recently. The debt collector threatened to call me everyday. I responded by saying she wasn't allowed to ever call me again unless she had a better offer. Debt collectors are actually quite educated with the law, so I made it clear to her that I also understood it.

Here is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which is actually an interesting read, and may be useful to know statutes of limitations, etc. Although, I do know that tuition loans are exempt from some things such as bankruptcy as previously pointed out.

<http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf>

I wish I had better advice, but hopefully you can be armed with more information to at least prevent harassment.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is going to sound mean. Sorry.

It sounds like you're running from stuff all the time. You need to break that habit now, especially if you are serious about running a business. Pretending that things will just go away if ignored sounds like a bad habit that you've picked up.

If the business isn't going to make money soon, dump it, mooch off your parents or girlfriend and start working multiple jobs for a few years.

All of the other solutions (income payment plans, deferring forever, etc) are just extending your pain and ultimately just screwing you and your future children out of a decent life. You had fun for a few years, pay for it.

<comment><USER9> Do not mooch off your girlfriend. Doing so will only take your existing problems with being financially responsible and inject them into your relationship. If you can figure out a way to pay back the money, pay it back. If you can't, don't prolong the process and drag your personal relationships into it. Be honest with the people you care for about your situation but avoid borrowing from them.

Other than that, I think I am on the same page with Duff. You have a responsibility to your children, whether you have them already or not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> 1\. Go to lawyers.com 2\. Find a handful of (3-4) bankruptcy attorneys near you 3\. Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with each of them

It sounds like you're insolvent, and that your student debt is causing "undue hardship", which has been the standard for discharging student debt since 1987 (Brunner v. New York State Higher Education Services).

<comment><USER11> Wow - real, useful, advice (seriously, up-vote parent please)!

The legal precedent you describe is different than what I've often heard and a simple Google seems to verify that you are correct.

It sounds like something that should get more attention than it does...

Given the power of the student loan industry, I suspect it would be hard to pull-off. But it still seems like something worth knowing.

<comment><USER5> I really can't see this working. $150K in debt for a guy who has a degree, no dependents and nothing stopping him from getting (at least) an average-paying job doesn't sound like some kind of crippling debt. He just needs to pull his finger out and go get that damn job instead of keeping on plunging money into an apparently-unprofitable business.

Forget "the power of the student loan industry", how would _you_ feel if you'd lent somebody $150,000 to get an education and they refused to pay it back on the grounds that "aw man, I don't wanna get a _job_..."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's nice to see so many positive comments. I made a similar thread about dealing with $70k (and being in the relatively low income marketing/PR field) on Reddit a few months back and was greeted with a lot of:

"Your stupid fault." "Should have done your research in choosing majors." "You brought it on yourself."

I understand the opinions, but that didn't add much to the conversation, nor help me to understand if there was something I might have been missing out on.

Some notes on what I did figure out would be:

\- Loan agents will downright lie. Always do the math yourself. I called SM to explain I needed my payment below $200 and we worked together to make it $185. A month later they my bill came in and my payment was $240. The story was that some of the many small loans weren't included in a new payment plan and blah blah blah...

\- The advice to pursue income based repayment is great, but many private lenders (which you no doubt have at with over $100k in debt) will simply say no. Working with private loans is a world different than working with public loans.

\- Find out if any of your loans have an interest rate more than twice that of other ones (mine surely do). Request a deferment or forebearance on any loans with an interest rate of 4%, and pay all that extra on your loans at 18%.

\- Umm... there's no easy way out to give up work and create a company. Sorry. I looked and looked myself. You likely won't be able to afford starting a company, but you can try to supplement your income with contracting or small 'muse' projects if you have the motivation.

\- Don't expect help from the government. The new 'student loan reform' helps them far more dramatically than it helps you: <http://i.imgur.com/vJm22.jpg>

I pay around $800 a month in student loans on a $2000 monthly income. So, 40% of all my money. Welcome to the good life.

<comment><USER13> I pay about $700 a month on about $1800 a month. After rent and bills I am left with $300 for food, and gas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm afraid this advice may be longer-term in scope than your present situation may call for, but I do think you need it.

When you've brought your debt obligation to a less burdensome state, I urge you to seriously reflect on your attitude towards money. Taking on a ton of debt for a degree with low payoff is understandable (for the most part), but I find it extraordinary that you allowed yourself to reach this point, especially when you had an opportunity to pay down that debt and simply chose not to.

You cannot possibly be a credible entrepreneur with such a negligent, even reckless attitude towards money, not to mention a penchant for ignoring problems until they've snowballed into something disastrous. You mention in one of your comments that you still want to be the founder of your own company, and (it seems) you're still trying to be. You need to put those wants aside. You need to concentrate on your needs, not your wants, and you're also not ready to be a founder.

I am also a little disturbed that you think you can pay off your debt with a Kickstarter campaign. Do you realize that Kickstarter doesn't do that stuff? They're not a general-purpose crowdfunding platform. If you actually do understand that, I'm worried that you may attempt to get Kickstarter funding by way of promoting a project, but then using the money to pay off your debt instead. FYI, you can't do that.

I wish you the best, and there's lots of good advice here already, so please follow it. But get your head out of the clouds and learn a little fiscal responsibility while you're at it, or you may find yourself in a similar situation yet again.

<comment><USER15> >You cannot possibly be a credible entrepreneur with such a negligent, even reckless attitude towards money

As far as I can tell, having a little bit of recklessness is /required/ - <USER2> mean, when you start a funded startup, you go in with a 9 out of 10 chance of corporate bankruptcy; and that's not even your own money. If you personally co-sign anything big, you have a pretty good chance of personal bankruptcy. (and if you are a bootstrapper, in most industries, you won't be able to get very far without personally co-signing anything.)

I think the biggest difference between myself and my peers who have chosen the employee path is that I have more risk tolerance. I am comparatively reckless. I mean, what else can you call it when you turn down a very comfortable living as an Engineer at a large company for a small chance of making your marginal dollar worth, ah, very little?

I mean, I'm bootstrapped, and fortunately was able to pay off my mistakes that caused big debt without bankruptcy, mostly because I am able to charge reasonable rates as a contractor, but this willingness to risk financial ruin is absolutely /essential/ if you want to run a small company.

But, you say, most debt incurred as a entrepreneur can be dealt with through bankruptcy! Which is true... most. but if you screw up your taxes? It's pretty easy to get a low-margin, high revenue business going. If the IRS disagrees about what constitutes a profit, you can get in deep trouble rather quickly. Tax law is subtle and complex; it's not like most things in business or technology where you can try it and see what sticks; with taxes, you pay what you think you owe, then a few years later, maybe the IRS checks up on you, and maybe they don't. Maybe they agree with your calculations of what you owe... and maybe they don't.

I mean, personally, I have a professional handle as much of that as possible, just 'cause I see this as the largest downside risk to my future financial state. (The idea of becoming destitute, of having no money doesn't really scare me that much. I've been there before, and while I try to avoid that state, it's not terrifying. The idea of having tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and no resources? /that/ frightens me.)

I mean, right now I'm largely debt free, but if some disaster brought my business to a halt tomorrow? I'd have about $50K in data center leases I'm personally on the hook for, and at least that much in customer pre-payments. (on the other hand, my hardware would pay for that if I could get a good price for it, but usually desperate sellers get desperate prices.)

Now, sure, the op needs to be more careful. And maybe the OP isn't careful enough to be an entrepreneur? I mean, obviously, there is a level of carelessness that goes beyond "risk tolerance" and starts becoming harmful.

My point is just that /if/ you want to be an entrepreneur, you risk taking on this kind of debit and worse.

When I had my own debt issues (which were largely caused by me signing long leases for resources I'd only need if the product took off, then the product failed miserably. Big mistake) I ended up contracting myself out and running the business sort of in 'degraded mode' - while paying down the debt. It's still an open question if it would have been better for me to close up shop and declare corporate and personal bankruptcy, but it's a moot point now.

I think the most important bit of advice for the OP is to /do something/ about the debt. Talk to a professional in the area, perhaps? But yeah, just ignoring the problem is often the worst choice. On the other hand, the people I know who lost their shirts in entrepreneurship; who ended up with huge debits (relative to their earning power) to the IRS? they largely ended up ignoring the problem, and ended up just not having credit or significant assets ever. I mean, even the IRS isn't going to prevent you from eating, and it's quite possible to live a college student level lifestyle without credit at all.

I would bet money that Entrepreneurs have much higher median levels of debit compared to people with similar skillsets working for other people.

<comment><USER16> There is a tremendous difference between aversion to risk and complete foolishness with allocation of time and resources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> 0\. Call the debt collectors and begin managing your debt in a responsible fashion.

1\. Go get a job. Ditch your company. It's not going to be profitable soon (or you wouldn't have posted). Make sure your job is in a city where you can afford to live _and_ pay it off.

2\. Find an apartment with 4-5 other people. It is a pain, but is cheap.

3\. Kill your lifestyle. Don't eat out, don't buy music, don't go to Starbucks. Don't buy things new.

4\. Work like a dog. Take two jobs if you can sustain it. Not everyone can.

\begin{rant} This sort of thing is the poster child for why humanities degrees are stupid for the vast majority of people. The OP would have been better served by being an electrician or plumber, then going into $150K in debt for a _house_.

It is sheer blinking idiocy not to do a cost/benefit analysis of your major decisions. There is no shame in not going to college, so long as you have a trade. All educators need to be aware of that. \end{rant}

</comment><comment><USER18> I think this warrants: holy shit.

Start reading the Simple Dollar (google it). You'll need it.

As far as I know, you can't bankrupt your way out of student debt. So you could just flee the country (likely not a good option), or else you're going to have to live with this for a long, long time.

You'll need to learn to negotiate with the debtors (is that what they're called?). After all, it's better for them if you pay of some debt slowly than no debt at all.

You'll probably also have to start paying this off, and unfortunately do this for many years to come.

I can't believe they let students take on these types of debts.

Since you work in the internet field, it's possible you might land a high- paying job with the right experience. That could help you pay this off in a reasonable amount of time (5 years perhaps).

<comment><USER19> > debtors (is that what they're called?)

OP is a debtor who needs to negotiate with his creditors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> $150,000 is bad but not un-fixable.

You should get credit counselling and speak to a lawyer about your options. Bear in mind credit counselors are often paid by the credit card companies. If you have to or decide to fulling pay down the debt do the following:

1\. Cut your costs - Use coupons, shop after 12pm at night (stuff at groceries stores goes on sale then), couch surf. You should be able to get your monthly costs down to $500 a month. Be really aggressive about keeping your costs low, sleep two a room if that's what it takes.

2\. Stop being an entrepreneur - there is a time and a place for everything. You might be made to be an entrepreneur but you need to sort out your debt first.

3\. Take the best paying job you can and then take another part time job. Basically the goal is to work 80 hour weeks. If you can do that at 10 you'll net $3200 a month.

4\. Pay down the highest interest loan first.

5\. Sell any and all assets that aren't necessary (computers and TV aren't necessary).

6\. Write down everything you spend money on at the end of the day.

Assuming you hit $500 in monthly expenses, can average $10 an hour and have 8% interest rate on your $150,000, you can pay down $2,700 and you'll pay it off in 5 years 10 months. In reality you'll do it faster because when you get yourself back on track it will snowball.

EDIT:

7\. Refinance to lower rates whenever possible

8\. Ask for help and tell people about your problem. Don't necessarily ask for charity but you might end up with a better job out of it.

</comment><comment><USER21> I have a friend who took an English teaching job in China to pay off his (admittedly not as big as yours but nonetheless substantial) student debt. He's recently out of college and has no teaching experience. Sound stupid? His job pays $4,500/month AFTER tax and accommodation is included. Factor in the substantially lower cost of living (he's in a poorer area of China, not Shanghai or Guangzhou etc) and you can easily save > $4000/month. The added benefit for someone like yourself is that you could potentially do some freelance work at the same time. Although many teaching jobs pay less than the one I just mentioned, most will leave you with a decent amount of free time on your hands. Hours are typically 15-30 per week. Just thought I'd throw that anecdote into the mix...

</comment><comment><USER9> While this won't help the OP, I think it might be valuable for some others here, particularly those with kids.

I have one year left in my undergraduate degree. My parents paid for the whole thing, including a semester in Europe.

Since I was old enough to understand my parents have made "the deal" very clear to me. My university education was promised, but it wasn't free. Whether I had children or not, it was my responsibility to pay for at least one young person to have a higher education.

It turns out this was a real gift. My life has at least one very real goal post. It contributed to my decision to choose a degree which would give me some marketable skills and it serves as a very tangible motivation to be financially responsible- I'm just a steward of the opportunity that was given to me.

I plan on making this expectation just as explicit with my kids and maybe some of you will as well. It may help keep your grandkids out of the OP's situation.

Edit: Maybe this will help the OP. Imagine helping your kids avoid your situation, you don't have to pay for all of it, but if you work your way out of this you will be able to help them. Think a few generations out from yourself, it could be the extra motivation you need to grind your way out of this.

</comment><comment> T-R I hate to be the one to make the skeptic post, because I'm sure it comes off a bit rude, but the timing of this does strike me as a little odd, considering that there are two posts about Peter Thiel on the main page, and the Scott Adams "How to get a real education" article just made it back. Not to say they couldn't have motivated you to post, but the anonymity (new account) and tone ("Due to excessive math & science training... I impulsively decided...", "an education that absolutely adds no value...") does inspire a bit of skepticism.

I'm a bit unconvinced that this isn't someone playing politics, though if you are really in a bad situation, best of luck to you.

Edit: In addendum, if you're going to downvote, please do make note as to why, e.g. if you think there's sufficient evidence not to merit skepticism, or if you think it should be taken at face value regardless, at least for the benefit of others. I won't, though, argue the point, in the interest of consideration to the OP, in case he is honest.

</comment><comment><USER22> If it were me, I'd put entrepreneurship on the back burner and plow my way through that debt. I started my business with no debt, and I can't imagine I would have made good decisions with that much financial obligation stressing me out. In fact, I still have very little debt now (just a very small mortgage) to keep my head clear.

I would recommend hitting up your library for a Dave Ramsey book or two. I don't follow his religion, but his "baby steps" for getting out of financial hot water are right on. Follow them - they aren't easy, but they work.

Sell stuff. Work your ass off. Live with tons of roommates. Eat beans and rice. Many people have gotten themselves out of worse situations with less means and education.

There will always be business opportunities. Solve your debt problem now. I rather live a debt-free "wage slave" life than be a scrappy entrepreneur who is always running away from creditors.

<comment><USER23> Beans and rice. Probably the cheapest meal on the planet. It's surprising the number of people who don't realize how little money is needed to eat nutritiously (especially if you buy them dried and in bulk)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> First, I wouldn't focus too much on the total amount, instead work out what you need to make per month, per week and per day and you'll arrive at an achievable non-astronomical sum. Focus on that. Stay in the present.

Second, let go of guilt&pity when/if it arises - it's destructive, along with any thoughts or opinions that condemn whatever got you in the situation you are. Ask better questions, like 'how is this a good thing and what is going well?' and 'what can I do better today?'. You can clear your debt with the same force you created it: compound effects over time. It's all about making small forward steps, every single day.

check out wealth dynamics to get some different ideas about mindset & money.

</comment><comment><USER25> Watch "Shawshank Redemption" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" these are stories which give you hope and the confidence that even under extremely difficult circumstances you can survive with dignity and overcome your worst fears. It would take just couple of dollars and a weekend to watch them.

I personally dont consider Bankruptcy as a an option, you went for the college which you aspired for, you took a loan and knew you would have to end up paying for it. Adulthood is about taking responsibilities for your actions.

You have 2 seperate problems,lower monthly income and loan repayment. Many people have given suggestions for reducing/negotiating the interest rates, or deferred payment, talk to your debt collector, ensure at least the interest component is paid. If you can tell your skills and level of competency, people can suggest jobs or places you can make higher $/hr than your current employment.

Dont leave hope, you would surely overcome these challenges

</comment><comment> ac-2534 With any luck morally responsible people with down vote this into oblivion, but...

At this point your loan has (almost certainly) already been sold as "bad debt" for pennies on the dollar, and given your description your credit probably reflects this. The good news is there are very few threats that can be leveled at you unless you somehow find yourself not broke. Here is the ticket to loosing the $150,000 debt. 1) Start hiding money in a "mattress" outside of the visible banking system. You need about 8-10% for a private loan 23-30% for one with government backing. 2) make it clear to the lender that they will never see regular payments on your loans that the debt truly has no collection value. 3) Once 1 and 2 are ready wait for a morning phone call from a debt collector. These folks are paid on commission and have quotas to meet. You need a hungry one! (you probably have gotten good at identifying them by now haven't you?) let on that you might have some money at the moment, but that you'd rather use it to buy a car/start a business mention that you've had to save up because you cannot borrow. The offer your looking for is making an immediate one time payment of $x in exchange for canceling your _all_ debt. (check this several times to be sure) Get that offer in writing then make the large payment quickly. Your credit will recover in 7-10 years.

</comment><comment><USER26> When I was a child back in early 90s in USSR and seeing happy life in 'Home Alone' I was asking "Why I was born in USSR, not USA?". Yeah, life was shit then.

20 years later, I am happy that I was born in USSR precisely due to these nasty things. Everyone I know here were able to get free education, and are dept-free now. Such stories keeps my intent to continue debt-free life.

</comment><comment><USER27> Sometimes the best you can hope for is to serve as a warning to others. Seriously.

You are in an extreme situation, but one that many people find themselves in at various levels of severity and many more fear. This presents a unique opportunity for you. It will take a LOT of work and dedication but it will serve the greater good and might even help dig you out of your hole:

Tell your story. You are here on HN so you seem like you don't mind sharing.

Kids in high school need to hear this story: go speak to them in assembly. I am sure if you made a few phone calls to counselors, they'd welcome you with open arms. You might not get paid (but, hell, you might) but you'd be doing a service to those kids.

Blog about it. Cliche, I know but do it. Start now. You have gotten to the front page of HN. That is something but the clock is ticking starting 14 minutes ago. What will you blog about? First, everything that has happened up till now regarding this. Your background; how you went to school; your hopes; the ease of it all; the nightmare of realizing what was really going to happen. All of it. Give an abstract and start chronologically in very human detail. Keep reminding people where you are going with all of it.

In the meantime, try to do something about it. Chronicle EVERYTHING. Keep records. Post your struggle as it happens. Contact the debt holder. Contact your school. Contact support groups. Contact alumni. Contact your representatives. What do they say? What do they do? What /can/ they do?

If you can manage it, try to really do it in a thorough style. Perhaps you can get a hold of someone to bring it all together in a documentary. That can be powerful. Maybe not a blockbuster but if done well it could bring awareness and maybe some recognition. Perhaps you could sell it to schools for future college students to watch.

At some point in this process try to get a hold of others in the same boat or that are otherwise affected. Some that, perhaps, got lucky and paid it off. Some that never did. Maybe some that took the ultimate way out. Some that tried stuff that you'd never thought of to get out of it. Add that material to your blog and film. Keep moving.

Perhaps dig into the industry. Follow the money. Who benefits? By how much? How did these 'student loans are immune to bankruptcy' laws pass? When did they come about? Did it impact overall borrowing rates? Talk to economists, lobbyists, industry folks, the boots on the ground in terms of debt collectors etc, etc.

Find people who did it right. Find out how they did it. Include all of this in your material...

Once you have explored this from all angles and made a bit of a name, maybe you could write a good book about it. Go on some talk shows. Who knows.

If you do it right, I know I'd follow your progress.

Good luck.

Edit: I forgot the point: doing all of this is valuable. Reap some of that value and somewhere down the road you might find that you can get out of this hole. It won't be easy by a long shot, but, hell, what have you got to lose?

<comment><USER28> _Kids in high school need to hear this story: go speak to them in assembly. I am sure if you made a few phone calls to counselors, they'd welcome you with open arms. You might not get paid (but, hell, you might) but you'd be doing a service to those kids._

Would people in the education system (even just at high school) tolerate someone coming in and telling the kids how it really is and how a university education isn't the be-all and end-all of life? Certainly no visitor to my high school ever said that and the teachers were flat out disappointed if you expressed any inclination to not at least _aim_ to go to university..

<comment><USER29> I went to a private high school, and there were two tracks: the college prep track and the college-isn't-for-me track. There wasn't really any pressure to go to college if you already had other plans for your life.

<comment><USER28> I went to high school in the UK and my tail-end years were the start of the Blair era when the government was on a huge "as many people must go to university as possible" push (which has only _just_ begun to recede). That might explain the attitudes I encountered.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> If I were you, I'll take up a job, get a Mac, learn some Objective C and churn out an iOS app. Lowest investment (both money and time) required to make some serious money. Plus no risk as there's a job already.

</comment><comment><USER31> I don't know the details of this (sorry!), but I seem to recall reading that the laws were recently changed to allow relief of student debt if the debtor had worked in the public sector, education, etc. for a certain period of time.

Since you're in a bit of a tough spot, and could continue your business efforts on your own time, you might consider seeking a job in those fields.

I hope that helps.

And, for the record, I thought the kickstarter idea was a great one. Certainly, I think you'd have to be quick about it, as that's the sort of thing where it pays to be first to market.

<comment><USER32> Look up the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. After 10 years of working in public service where you have made 120 payments toward the loan, they will discharge the rest of it. There's always the military.

[http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/PSF....](http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/PSF.jsp)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I believe there is a fairly new program where if you work for a government agency or non-profit you can have the remainder of your student loan forgiven after making 120 minimum payments on a income based repayment program.

I quick Google search turned up this website: <http://www.ibrinfo.org/index.php>

</comment><comment><USER34> I'm in a similar boat ($120,000 student loan debt), although I'm getting married with a fiance who won't be able to support herself (contribute any money to the family) for about a year.

1\. Extend the payments to 30 years (instead of 15, this "saved" me about $600 a month in payments)

2\. Do the income sensitive repayment plan that others have suggested.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER35> Declare bankruptcy (dont be shameful), go to china or middle-east (or any other country) to teach english, make some good $$$ & awesome saving, come back after 7yrs and start a new life with new credit score(because bad credit after bankruptcy stays only for 7yrs) and start a new business with saved money...

</comment><comment><USER36> Shit man, that's intense. Do you have programming skills? Or what is your skillset?

<comment><AUTHOR> Design & sales

<comment><AUTHOR> front end

<comment><USER37> do you have an online portfolio of your work?

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, but I would like to keep my identity private for the current time being, if you would like, I can email you privately

<comment><USER37> sure, email is revolutions@gmail

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> <http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=user+experience+designer>

</comment><comment><USER39> Expatriate?

<comment><USER40> What are the probable consequences, short and long-term, of doing this?

I don't expect that this is advisable, but does anyone actually know if the government will come after you if you move to say, Thailand to escape your debt to the government?

<comment><USER41> Good luck renewing your passport in a case like that. Extradition is unlikely, but getting back into the US could be sticky to say the least.

<comment><USER42> > Extradition is unlikely

An understatement, to say the least.

> but getting back into the US could be sticky to say the least

Really? They're not going to allow you back into the USA, or arrest you at the border for defaulting on a loan? That doesn't sound very credible at all. Any evidence to back that up?

<comment><USER39> I have never heard of them doing this for only $150k. They'll do it for Wesley Snipes maybe but that's a different story.

<comment><USER43> That was for taxes, not student loan debt.

<comment><USER39> My point still stands.

<comment><USER44> I don't think it does...

Defaulting on student loans is a civil debt. Filing fraudulent tax returns is a crime. I have never heard of someone being extradited or having their passport cancelled for defaulting on a civil debt (probably because governments have no direct interest in civil debts per se)

<comment><USER40> But student loan debt is almost entirely held by the federal government now. Does this mean it's still civil debt? I'm inclined to think that it isn't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> The Feds (of some color) are investigating private schools that screw students, but I suspect that the best outcome we will get is a slap on the wrist with no relief to those who were swindled. It is probably true that all for-profit schools are a swindle.

If I were in your shoes. I would look on-line for discussion groups of people with similar problems. You shouldnt trust the advice, but it might give you the lay of the land. (Dont trust me either. I'm thinking off the top of my head.) Try to find a class action law suit that you could join, especially against your school.

Often the collection agencies are subcontractors to the federal agency actually guaranteeing the debt. Maybe the feds can give you some relief, like forbearance. Unlike a private creditor, they are often able to give you reasonable courses of action.

If I were you, I would get some legal advice. Maybe they cant just have their way with you.

Fight back.

<comment><USER46> How does the original post relate to private schools that screw students over? The poster incurred debt, ignored it for years, failed to make any efforts to pay it back, made risky investments, and now is at risk of legal action.

Sounds like an individual version of the recent financial crisis and you're siding with the banks.</comment></comment>


Wikipedia founder to fight fake news with new Wikitribune site - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-to-fight-fake-news-with-new-wikitribune-site <comment><USER2> Covered at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14189688](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14189688)</comment>


Show HN: Curveball – A web framework in Typescript with support for HTTP/2 push - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/curveballjs/core <comment><USER2> Why not contributing to [https://nestjs.com/](https://nestjs.com/) ? Constructively speaking, what are the main advantages over it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nest 'delegates' the underlying middleware and request/response handling to Express.

In this comparison, Curveball would replace Express, not Nest. It would definitely be possible to write something like Nest on top of Curveball, just like Nest was written on top of Express.</comment></comment>


Why humans started cooking - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2011/12/08/why-calorie-counts-are-wrong-cooked-food-provides-a-lot-more-energy/

<comment><USER2> I find the argument that cooked food provides the human eating it more energy very plausible, and am surprised that it is controversial. (Is it really?)

This article appeared some time ago on HN, suggesting that the advent of cooking, and the higher amount of energy we could derive from cooked foods, allowed us to evolve a reduced gastrointestinal system and our big powerful brains:

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8543906.stm></comment>


A giant heat dome over Alaska is set to threaten all-time temperature records - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/07/03/giant-heat-dome-over-alaska-is-set-threaten-all-time-temperature-records/ <comment><USER2> I am currently in Alaska between 2 raging fires (Swan Lake Fire, and one near Fairbanks). Temperatures in Denali Park and Anchorage peaked at 86. I casually surveyed every AK resident I met about their views on climate change and I heard several responses (clearly not scientific). Universally no one denied climate change was occurring. They enumerated examples without qualification. (Less snow, fewer bears, more fires, severe summer heat). I have no data (didn't ask) about political persuasions. Pretty random sample since we weren't on touristy cruises...several low paid workers and several college grads:

* "climate has been changing since the last ice age, nothing we can do about it"

* "it's been great, we have had so much fun enjoying the lake [water sports, swimming, etc]...it's really not anything to worry about"

* "the lower 48 just likes to get into everybody's business"

* "sure we might be causing it but what the hell, it's ours to use it [the planet? Resources?] while we can"

* "it hasn't been that bad for more than a couple years so I don't see why it won't change back to the way it was or even better"

* "yeah it's been bad, I'm planning to leave"

* "too many people that's what causes it"

* "we'll adapt"

Overall having seen AK first hand in 1982, 1992 and now, it is striking how much has changed. Huge amount of development, wildlife much more scarce, pollution EVERYWHERE.

Really quite depressing.

That said, I have to take lumps for burning fossil fuels to come here, and while driving, so I cant throw stones.

</comment><comment><USER3> We're so fucked and nobody is doing anything about it. We're going _backwards_ actually increasing emissions. even the people who most want to do things are proposing solutions that barely make a dent in the problem. We need to impose draconian carbon taxes worldwide immediately if we want to have any hope of stopping this.

<comment><USER4> You're basically saying we should impose a massive global economic punch in the face, which is just never going to happen. That's the issue with climate change - making any kind of real impact requires a large, sustained, and _global_ effort from governments on a scale that I don't think has ever happened in human history. In my opinion, it's far too late for prevention and the real tragedy is that we aren't spending more time and resources on looking at ways to counteract climate change. By the time things get really bad and people are starving from mass crop failures, we won't have the technology and/or knowledge of downstream impacts to be able to possibly fix things.

<comment><USER5> I should have heard this already, but why exactly would there be "crop failures" rather than "massive increases in agricultural production" which would seem to be the actual effect of warmth and more C02?

<comment><USER6> Water availability and weather events damaging crops I think are the big dangers.

Greater variation in weather events isn't good for agriculture in either direction. Flooding at one end (like the midwest US got hit with badly this year), or drought at the other. In between there's the increased occurrence of sudden events like hailstorms, wildfires.

Areas with good aquifers presently find themselves with a decent buffer against drought, but there's a worldwide phenomenon of aquifer consumers overdrawing and proving unable to properly regulate sustainable access to those, let alone factoring in the changing supply rate to said aquifers. E.g, if your aquifers are snow-fed, but the winter snowfall is gradually waning up in the mountains, then what used to be sustainable could "suddenly" run dry. The Yemen water crisis is a good example of this (aided by overconsumption for growing khat), but we've seen the same coordinated action problems even in wealthy democracies like California.

There's also other risks from heat stress (some crops affected by this more than others), and also secondary risks, e.g a lot of these same stresses (plus all the other stresses of modernity) on pollinators like bees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I said the other day that it's time to stop having conversations with climate denialists.

By denialist, I mean someone whose goal is is the establishment of a counter- narrative to the mainstream view of the causes, risks, and imminence of global climate change. Some argue that such discrimination will hinder sincere skepticism and innocent inquiry, but neither scenario seems likely to me.

Sincere skepticism is easy: simply respect the standards of the discipline, by arguing 'I disbelieve [scope of disputed phenomenon] for [reasons], which I have detailed in article at [journal or preprint]' and exhibiting a baseline level of respect and the same sort of good faith assumptions about others that one hopes to receive for oneself.

Likewise, sincere inquiry can proceed along lines like 'I don't understand [phenomenon], can you explain as I were in [grade/ college/ graduate school]' and a similar baseline level of respect for others' time and knowledge in assisting.

Insincere disputation is often characterized by disrespect for others' time or intelligence. Temporal disrespect most commonly manifests as endless questions, especially naive or simplistic seeming ones that become more and more technical while critiquing unwanted replies as unsatisfactory - a simple but effective strategy for manipulating a conversation by faking superiority. The lazier version of this is to simply abuse people by deriding their claims as hoaxes. Attacking the claimant proceeds by discounting their intelligence, integrity, or sanity without any basis in fact.

Of course, such 'critiques' are rarely persuasive to the target person, or to other participants in the discussion. They are not meant to persuade, but are a performative display designed to swindle the gullible, cause despondency in the frustrated, and humiliate the target for the amusement of sadists. Negatives reactions are equated to negative evidence and most if not all of the argumentation involves drawing logical conclusions from an invalid major premises which are usually epistemological nitpicks.

tl;dr it's not that hard to express or detect genuine doubt, curiosity, or confusion - nor bad-faith efforts to derail discussion.

<comment><USER8> My main concern is that global climate change will be the excuse the world governments need to increase their power over us.

Governments the world over are responsible for the most horrific of crimes against humanity, it is time for us to find and exercise a new model of governance.

<comment><USER9> There's no alternative to control. If you don't have a government, you have a local band of thugs running things, or you have a good thing for a little while (as in the Spanish Republic) until it gets crushed by fascists on one side and Stalinists on the other. You can have limited government, but it can't be so limited that cannot achieve the goal of stabilizing the climate. Your new model has to get the job done; if not, then half the planet becomes uninhabitable and billions have to move, resulting in wars like we've never seen.

Cooperative arrangements are great when they work, but too many human beings are assholes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I cannot read the article. Is there a non-paywalled version?

<comment><USER11> [https://archive.fo/9sNgA](https://archive.fo/9sNgA)

<comment><USER12> or use [https://outline.com/](https://outline.com/)</comment></comment></comment>


Building a Data Intensive Web App with Hadoop, Hive, & EC2 - <AUTHOR> http://www.cloudera.com/hadoop-data-intensive-application-tutorial

<comment><AUTHOR> Related blog post here: [http://www.cloudera.com/blog/2009/07/31/tracking- trends-with...](http://www.cloudera.com/blog/2009/07/31/tracking-trends-with- hadoop-and-hive-on-ec2/)

Full source code on Github: <http://github.com/datawrangling/trendingtopics/tree/master>

Dataset on Amazon Public Data Sets: [http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?ex...](http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=2596)

</comment><comment><USER2> I have a friend interning at Hadoop over the summer. I'm particularly interested in how their business model will work. Their branch of Hadoop I believe is being offered for free, and they're basically cloud computing consultants with the goal of customizing Hadoop for different industries/clients. It's a huge market opportunity.

<comment><USER3> Running a consulting firm around Hadoop and related technologies makes a lot of sense, but taking VC funding to do so is surprising, IMHO (Cloudera are backed by Accel and Greylock). A consulting firm has relatively small capital requirements, but is fundamentally less scalable than a "product" firm: to make 2x revenue, you need ~2x the staff. I'm curious to see whether they'll be able to achieve the sort of returns that a typical VC expects if they stick to a purely-consulting business model.

Cloudera have taken ~$11M in VC funding so far[1]; is there really ~$110M in profit to be made off Hadoop consulting, training and support in the medium term? I wonder.

One possibility is that they're using consulting to build revenue and mindshare in the short-term, and using the capital they've raised to launch something more substantial in the longer-term (say, running their own cloud/hosted Hadoop service).

[1] [http://ostatic.com/blog/hadoop-centric-cloudera- gets-6-milli...](http://ostatic.com/blog/hadoop-centric-cloudera- gets-6-million-in-series-b-funding)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It was great to have Pete Skomoroch speak about this at the hadoop meetup in DC. I am really glad that it is being shared with the rest of the community now. Cloudera is collecting good use cases and providing innovative ideas in their blog. Thanks again for sharing Pete.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is almost exactly what I have been working on, and would be a lot of help! Thanks !

<comment><USER5> Why are you loading the processed data on MySQL tables? I am not sure about how much MySQL would scale, given that wikipedia has ~3million articles. Like I said, I am working on a similar problem right now and we are trying to avoid MySQL. Did you guys consider HBase or other big-table like implementations?

HN insights will be valuable, thank you!

<comment><AUTHOR> The live site trendingtopics.org is using MySQL for all 3 million articles and it handles it pretty well with the right indexing, bulk loads, and memcached. I built the initial demo in 10 days, so I choose Rails w/ MySQL mostly for simplicity and with the intention of adding Solr or Sphinx search. The way the data is stored (key value style w/ JSON timelines) was actually intended to lend itself to replacing MySQL with another fast big-table like datastore.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the quick reply. How many machines are running MySQL for you?

I was reading this website - [http://www.metabrew.com/article/anti-rdbms-a- list-of-distrib...](http://www.metabrew.com/article/anti-rdbms-a-list-of- distributed-key-value-stores/)

I have not tried HBase and HyperTable myself yet, but the blog post says that they still have latency issues. What are your views?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're just using a single c1.medium instance for the database right now. Trendingtopics.org is a relatively low traffic, read-only site and most of the reads are for a handful of urls on the front page which can be cached.

Also, after processing the raw log data with Hadoop, we only need to store/lookup 3M records in the MySQL presentation layer, which is well within the capabilities of a tuned RDBMS. Many Rails sites are backed by MySQL, so I thought linking Hadoop/Hive to a common data workflow would make for a good example.

I've been hearing that recent improvements to HBase 0.20 could make it a contender: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1022150/is-hbase- stable-a...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1022150/is-hbase-stable-and- production-ready) and some high volume sites like Mahalo are already using it. That said, there are other alternative data stores (Cassandra, Voldemort, Tokyo Tyrant) that might be worth exploring if a database isn't cutting it for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Awesome stuff. Nice to see a deep practical discussion on building working systems.

</comment><comment><USER7> Brilliant tutorial - Very in-depth and covers quite a lot of ground.

</comment><comment><USER8> Practical, extensive, and timely piece on the nuts and bolts of weaving Hadoop and EC2.

</comment><comment><USER9> Intense, thorough tutorial. Nice to see a pragmatic Hadoop walk-thru.</comment>


Missing tattoos: Altered photo lineup by Portland police draws objection - <AUTHOR> https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2019/08/the-case-of-the-missing-tattoos-altered-photo-lineup-by-portland-police-draws-objection.html <comment> denton-scratch "Some" (i.e. more than one?) of the tellers picked out Allen - a man with prominent facial tattoos. I.e. they must have been mistaken.

I've had to do an identity parade; I failed to correctly identify the perp. I'd eyeballed the guy for only a few seconds, and the line-up was three months later. I picked someone out, but it was the wrong guy. The perp and everyone in the line-up were all black guys; I'm white, and not very good at telling black guys apart.

Line-ups are on the whole poor quality evidence.

[edit] The cops also screwed up; I learned later that me and the suspect had been in the same room in the cop-shop, prior to the line-up.

<comment><USER2> I've had two pick out an accused while he was in the back of a cruiser filled with three guys and I failed 15 minutes after I saw the guy commit the crime. I hate to say it but even living in a community with them they all look the same to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Photoshopped out tattoos to show a photo-lineup representative of having covered it up with makeup seems to be the real argument made in TFA. In this light seems a bit more innocuous.

<comment><USER4> Then why not portray him as being white, in case his makeup skills are that good?

<comment><USER5> Because the robber didn't appear white?

<comment><USER4> He also didn't appear to be tattoo-free, but we need to plan for any situation.

<comment><USER5> He _did_ appear to be tattoo-free. That's the point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Of interest: 1994 Time Magazine cover with altered mugshot of O.J. Simpson: [https://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/project...](https://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/enyioha/O.J.Simpson.html)

Note that the linked article incorrectly says he was "found innocent." In fact the jury found the prosecution failed to meet the burden of proof that was he guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt."

<comment><USER7> That's what "found innocent" means. There's no other definition in our legal system.

<comment><USER8> Exactly. The default setting is "innocent until proven guilty", so if someone fails to be found guilty, they are inherently innocent in the eyes of the law.

<comment><USER9> The full phrase is " _presumed_ innocent until proven guilty". It's specifying how people should be treated by the legal system, not stating whether they are _in fact_ innocent or not.

<comment><USER8> >It's specifying how people should be treated by the legal system, not stating whether they are in fact innocent or not.

How is that different from

> if someone fails to be found guilty, they are inherently innocent in the > eyes of the law

?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I semi-remember hearing that ear-prints are also somewhat unique (like, say, thumb-prints). Since the CCTV seems to have a decent ear image, couldn't the defense demonstrate that their client's ear is distinctly different in shape?

</comment><comment><USER11> > _...and the decision to cover up Allen's tattoos was done in this case to > "prevent misidentifying the suspect."_

How are you going to "misidentify" a suspect with facial tattoos against an array without them? Not only that, until the tip, facial tattoos didn't even enter the equation. The prominent one on his right cheek should've been a dead give-away, even in the released surveillance photo.

This seems like a " _We got him, boys, let 's make sure he doesn't get away!_" type of situation.</comment>


Amazon Route53 DNS Performance Slowest in Industry - <AUTHOR> https://www.dnsperf.com <comment><AUTHOR> For some of our HTTP requests from the US, Canada, and Europe, 20-45% of response time is spent doing DNS lookup (100ms+). For a hosting provider as widely used as AWS, frankly I find this absurd.

How are they twice as slow as GoDaddy?!

Edit: On the bright side, since so many other DNS providers have solved this problem, it must be solvable. They have the opportunity to speed up a big chunk of the internet in one fell swoop!</comment>