Help save Nalini Ambady's life with a cheek swab  - <AUTHOR> http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2013/05/saving-nalini-ambady

<comment><AUTHOR> Longish comment from <https://www.facebook.com/HelpNaliniNow/info> :

Beloved mother, friend, and professor Nalini Ambady needs to find a South Asian marrow donor match. Swab your cheek and spread the word today! Donors ages 18-44 needed. Go to <http://tinyurl.com/iwillsavenalini> to register for free! Description Nalini Ambady is a Stanford University professor and a mom with two daughters in high school. She is fighting for her life. In 2004, Nalini was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenus Leukemia (AML) which is a cancer of the blood. After 8 years in remission, Nalini's leukemia has returned, and she needs a bone marrow transplant as soon as possible. Her donor must match her, genetically. The number of South Asians in the bone marrow registries is very low. Nalini needs your help.

Nalini has given a lot. She is a world-class social scientist and is the first South Asian to achieve the highest levels of prominence in her field, which is social psychology. Nalini has produced ground-breaking research, resulting in hundreds of publications and tens of thousands of citations. As a result, her research has been featured in a number of popular press books, including Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. Nalini is also the first Indian ever to have taught in the Harvard and Stanford psychology departments. She is a beloved teacher and mentor, having changed the lives of many hundreds of students at Harvard, Stanford and Tufts universities. She has also trained world-class psychologists and experts in their respective fields. Nalini is admired as a scholar and cherished as a friend. Most importantly, Nalini is a mother and wife. Her family needs her.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1\. REGISTER Nalini is South Asian, originally from Kerala, India, so she is most likely o match a fellow South Asian! Please register online for free at <http://tinyurl.com/iwillsavenalini> or find a drive near you on our website nalinineedsyou.com.

2\. SET UP A DRIVE If you would like to set up a drive, please email email@example.com. We will do almost all the work for you!

3.VOLUNTEER We always need volunteers to help out at drives. Please email Nadya Dutchin email@example.com if you're available to help.

4\. SPREAD THE WORD You can also help by spreading the word about Nalini through your social networks. Even if you don't know a match, someone you know might. #HelpNaliniNow

5\. MAKE A DONATION Help us provide swab kits to people all around the world. (Contributions are tax deductible) Go to nalinineedsyou.com to donate funds today.</comment>


Sorry but not sorry - <AUTHOR> http://aeon.co/magazine/society/why-the-apology-is-a-friend-of-the-powerful/ <comment><USER2> Plea bargaining, and racist/classist apology-rejecting, among factors like this, seem to be what's broken the US justice system. Or so it seems from articles like this, and the horrible reports of unapologetic police brutality in places like Ferguson, Missouri.

The USA really really needs to do something about this, if I'm (and many other aliens like me are) ever to believe a criminal conviction there has anything to do with reality.

<comment><USER3> In a world of couch people it seems this is OK to majority of society. They will be outraged, but only from safety of their houses, internet and tv.

We are in the age of people grown on no-stress doctrine, where people just dont really care.

The only people that care are either unemployed, immigrants or extreme right wing groups. Those people will never get proper attention of rest left-center oriented society. They are not being taken seriously.

The things will get only worse until something big happen to the world. Something that will make people get out to the streets and fight for the cause.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think that the article trying to imply a stronger link between apologies and the law than really exists in practice.

Corporate apologies are not about trying to win a lawsuit or reduce damages, they are about trying to regain trust and prevent or stem the loss of market share.

The public are not so stupid as to be significantly swayed if the company apologises publicly for some problem and doesn't say what they are doing to address the problem. For example, if a companies widgets were exploding, the company might apologise and explain that they have fixed the exploding component, and instituted review processes to stop it happening again. Sometimes the change will not be sufficient to fix the problem, and the public may not have the background to realise this.

The article claims safe apology "laws provide another way to protect wrongdoers from liability". But that is not really true - without the laws, companies in the wrong would not apologise at all, so there would be no more evidence against them. The laws allow companies to apologise without legally self-incriminating; the article takes a very law centric view, but I would think most people would value an apology even if it didn't incriminate the person making the apology - the apology (and particularly, the explanation of why it won't happen again) has value to the public outside of the legal system. Of course, the company apologising should still be able to be held liable if their explanation is untrue or misleading (for example, if the company says that the new version of their widget no longer explodes, but they are lying to get more sales, and it in fact does still explode, they should face an additional charge with big penalties for misleading or deceptive conduct in the course of trade, with the apology admissible as evidence).

<comment><USER5> "I'm sorry you're stupid."

"I'm sorry you caused this."

"I'm sorry you feel bad."

"I'm sorry you were offended."

"I'm sorry you (apologize for your wrongdoing or feelings)."

And none of those mean anything in terms of contriteness. However, many of those are rather offensive. But they all express "Sorry".

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> _What can be done? If we are to continue reducing punishments for apologetic offenders (and for the record, I think we should)_

I completely disagree. The article already provides an excellent argument against this practice: it is inherently subjective and clearly biased.

I'll add another argument: the justice system will never be perfect. We'll always occasionally convict innocent people. Such people cannot be asked to be contrite about a crime they did not commit, nor does it make any sense to hold their lack of contrition against them, as we currently do.

I think the only fair way to do it is to base the initial sentence solely on the severity of the crime itself, and then, once the sentence is underway, to make parole decisions based solely on the prisoner's behavior in prison. Contrition should not factor into it.

</comment><comment><USER7> Personally, I have been mentioning the idea of an admission of wrongdoing with an apology letter in the employee poaching scandal for a while now. I think the SEC is pushing admission of wrongdoing in settlements.

</comment><comment><USER8> It's not just racism/classicism. A study found ugly people get sentences twice as long as attractive people.

</comment><comment><USER9> Ref: The book by the article's author (Nick Smith) [http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/jurisprude...](http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/law/jurisprudence/justice- through-apologies-remorse-reform-and-punishment)

It's interesting to note the volume of literature on the subject. Check out the references at the bottom of this symposium page:

[http://philpapers.org/rec/BENSTA-5](http://philpapers.org/rec/BENSTA-5)

</comment><comment><USER10> Just pulling one point from the article; its interesting that sentencing is often based on 'gut feeling' of the offenders level of remorse. It makes me think of the research of John Gottman, who developed a system to predict divorce rates with surprising accuracy from analysing a single conversation. I wonder if his technique's could be applied for a more scientific and perhaps more accurate judgement of remorse.</comment>


Jackhammer: Universal Cross-Platform Level Design Tool for Classic Games - <AUTHOR> http://jackhammer.hlfx.ru/en/

<comment><AUTHOR> A video tutorial on making a map for Counter-Strike 1.6 with Jackhammer: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEed2_3MBmA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEed2_3MBmA)

The narration is on Russian, but you can understand the basics without it.</comment>


Opposite of a URL shortener? - <AUTHOR>

Hey all! I'm looking for a service or software that's the opposite of a URL service, the anti-bitly: given a short URL, to give us the expansion... do you know of any services like this? (Hmph, I haven't programmed in a decade - maybe this is a fun little project to try!) <comment><USER2> <http://www.unshorten.com/index.php>

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-longurl-plugin/>

... which uses the API of <http://www.longurlplease.com/></comment>


Yes, Bacon Really Is Killing Us - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/01/bacon-cancer-processed-meats-nitrates-nitrites-sausages <comment><USER2> Learnt everything I need to know from the URL

</comment><comment><USER3> TL;DR in quotes:

> _an announcement from the World Health Organization that "processed meats" > were now classified as a group 1 carcinogen, meaning scientists were certain > that there was "sufficient" evidence that they caused cancer, particularly > colon cancer. The warning applied not just to British bacon but to Italian > salami, Spanish chorizo, German bratwurst and myriad other foods._

> _The WHO announcement came on advice from 22 cancer experts from 10 > countries, who reviewed more than 400 studies on processed meat covering > epidemiological data from hundreds of thousands of people._

> _The part of the story we haven't been told – including by the WHO – is that > there were always other ways to manufacture these products that would make > them significantly less carcinogenic._

> _The pinkness of bacon – or cooked ham, or salami – is a sign that it has > been treated with chemicals, more specifically with nitrates and nitrites. > It is the use of these chemicals that is widely believed to be the reason > why "processed meat" is much more carcinogenic than unprocessed meat._

> _The health risk of bacon is largely to do with two food additives: > potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre) and sodium nitrite. It is these > that give salamis, bacons and cooked hams their alluring pink colour. > Saltpetre – sometimes called sal prunella – has been used in some recipes > for salted meats since ancient times._

The idea that nitrates are the reason processed meats are carcinogenic seems to be mainly taken from a recent book by a French journalist; not much in the way of links to scientific research. Would be nice to see some links along this line. The WHO recommendations are pretty incontrovertible however.</comment>


How not to be a better programmer - <AUTHOR> http://blog.erratasec.com/2016/01/how-not-to-be-better-programmer.html <comment><USER2> "Don't ask for help and don't help other people" I think the author is confusing being a better programmer with being a more politically successfully programmer in a shitty organisation.</comment>


First Librem 5 Smartphones Are Shipping - <AUTHOR> https://puri.sm/posts/first-librem-5-smartphones-are-shipping/ <comment><USER2> This is incredible, they actually delivered! Given the state of similar projects, often kickstarted, I had my doubts.

It's a Linux phone running GNOME. It's the same deal as the Ubuntu phone that raised 10s of millions out whatever in a crowd funded campaign.

That said, where's a video with a hands on with the device? I wanna see how it handles.

<comment><USER3> I'm really excited! BTW I really wish some other phone picks up KDE Plasma mobile [0]. It's probably at least as mature as GNOME, at least judging by the screenshots. BTW I love KDE connect in Android.

[0] [https://www.plasma-mobile.org/](https://www.plasma-mobile.org/)

<comment><USER4> There's no reason not to run Plasma Mobile on the Librem 5 ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This makes me extremely curious how many they have to ship, and how fast they are shipping. I say this because I backed the Librem 5 the same day it came out (My order was at 5:30 PM EST), and I asked to be a part of the first batch. Despite this, I haven't gotten an email asking what modem I want, where it should be shipped, etc.

While I am not the first in line, I can't imagine I am far from the front.

<comment><USER6> I was surprised that they're talking in future tense:

> Everyone who pre-ordered the Librem 5 smartphone will be receiving an email > letting them know which shipping batch — and what shipping date window — > they are scheduled for, before we prepare each batch for shipment.

...even though they said:

> The first Librem 5 smartphones roll off the assembly line and ship to > customers.

Sounds like only the first part of that sentence is true? The good news being that you should get that email soon, I guess.

<comment><USER5> I am hoping so. I emailed them asking about my order.

I mean, I get it, low production runs of hardware and prototyping hardware is hard. Having a hardware bug in the first batch would be terrible.

I would even get if the first batch is going to devs that worked on this, then they can work out hardware bug for the second batch of PCBs.

I just wish I knew when I was getting it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Really liking the look. Todays phones are so thin they just don't feel good until you put a case on them. The librem 5 looks like it has a nice solid boxyness to it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Curious how Purism handles notifications..can it be as efficient (and hopefully scalable) as GCM/Firebase? Wish I knew more about the details, and would love a non-android phone (already use a KaiOS 1.0 Alcatel Flip) that has real, if even basic, functionality.

<comment><USER9> Slightly off topic: how does GCM work without an internet connection? Why does it need to send info a server and have the server send info back to the phone? Why can't it do that work without network access? If I have my phone on airplane mode and an app that uses GCM needs to send a notification, how does it get to my phone?

<comment><USER5> My understanding is that the GCM is for notifications that come in from off the phone (i.e. from a server). Rather than have every program have a background service (and if they are badly made, have it drain the battery) to check notifications, they can all tie into one background service that can be optimized for it.

I would imagine that notifications that are local don't need to go through GCM.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I tend not to buy new phones until my current one is done for. But if the Librem 5 pans out and is well received by the first buyers, there is a high likelihood this will be my next phone.

</comment><comment><USER11> Congrats!

I really want to see how great a convergent Linux phone can be!

</comment><comment><USER12> Great milestone and coincident with the release of 'Permanent Record' just re- enforces the need for this device.

</comment><comment> j-walker Is the hardware open-source?

<comment><USER13> yes, but i don't think it's posted yet for the final boards. here's the dev kit: [https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/dvk- mx8m-bsb](https://source.puri.sm/Librem5/dvk-mx8m-bsb)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> What does it mean for the Librem 5 to be "IP-Native Communication First"?

<comment><USER15> I think its their way of saying the phone is designed to be usable without traditional cellular network access:

"A No-Carrier Phone?

WiFi calling and VoIP calling will be able to be provided in WiFi or data plan modes. We expect to offer call-out, and call-in with phone numbers in all of these plans as well. If you still require a "traditional" phone number through a carrier and want to make unencrypted phone calls or messaging, it will be an option you can choose, but is not required (we recommend avoiding unencrypted phone calls)." [0]

Its still a bit of odd phrasing, as most everything on an LTE connected phone is also IP-native.

[0] [https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/7tf3w4/what_does_ip...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Purism/comments/7tf3w4/what_does_ipnative_mean/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> has anyone here received confirmation of which batch they're in? i haven't and i'm just trying to gauge which batches are confirmed.

<comment><USER5> No I have not. I said it below, but I ordered on their kickstarter the same day it came out, and I got an email today saying I will get an email when my order comes up.</comment></comment>


A Dev Bootcamp for non-technical people - <AUTHOR> http://tradecrafted.com/

<comment><USER2> Not related to the concept, but your font choice seems suboptimal. Raleway's a beautiful typeface, but as small, thin gray letters on black background, there's a lot of subpixel rendering artifacts that make it really difficult to read. Example: [http://i.imgur.com/Ips6rng.png?1](http://i.imgur.com/Ips6rng.png?1)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm a little bit skeptical of paying for the opportunity to do "real work for real" companies. It sounds a lot like an unpaid internship (except worse).

<comment><USER4> In an unpaid internship, you typically get very little professional development - if the company can't pay you, then they probably don't have the resources to have a staffer support your learning either. With Tradecraft, we have paid experienced instructors (with your tuition money) to be there to help you to learn from your project work by giving guidance and feedback. We believe that this will give you the best of both worlds -- the transfer of knowledge that happens in a classroom, the assimilation of knowledge that happens on the job, and a feedback loop between the two. Disclosure: I'm one of the Founders of Tradecraft

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The more people getting trained on this side of the business, the better.

</comment><comment><USER6> Interesting concept, excited to check this out.

<comment><USER4> We're particularly excited to have students do real work for real companies, which isn't really possible at Dev Bootcamp. If you're only 3 weeks into Rails, you can't do much useful work, but 3 weeks into sales training, you can do lots of helpful lead generation and learn in the process.

<comment><USER7> This is not necessarily true. I don't know about DBC, but I do know that other coding programs offer paid client projects.

Source: I'm in a coding bootcamp working on a paid client project.

<comment><USER4> Interesting, that is a good source, thanks for sharing.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: As techies what was it like living in the Bay Area in the 90s vs. now? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Sorry, I moved away from there in '92, but if you want to know what it was like from '64 until then, I'm your man. In the Santa Clara Sunnyvale area it was primarily orchards, cherry, apricot and prune plums, now it's all condos and shopping centers.

<comment><USER3> I'd have loved to live in that era. :(</comment></comment>


Amazon Web Services to Reboot 10% of Infrastructure Due to Xen Security Advisory - <AUTHOR>

Dear Amazon EC2 Customer,<p>One or more of your Amazon EC2 instances are scheduled to be rebooted for required host maintenance in order to deploy important updates. These updates must be completed by 3/10 before the underlying issues we are addressing are made public as part of an upcoming Xen Security Advisory (XSA). Following security best practices, the details behind these issues will be withheld until then. Security and operational excellence are our top priorities, and therefore we occasionally need to do host maintenance on short notice. We have built the capability to live-update the vast majority of our fleet, however we have not yet enabled this capability on some of our older hardware. Fewer than 10% of EC2 customer instances will need to be rebooted in order to receive this update.<p>=== Just so happens that my business' entire infrastructure on AWS (19 servers) falls in that 10%.... <comment><USER2> Just received this note from AWS that they've figured out how to reduce this % to less than 0.1%.

"Since then, the team has been working around the clock to find ways to minimize the impact for those requiring a reboot. We're happy to share that we'll now be able to live-update the vast majority of our older hardware for this Xen Security Advisory. This means that over 99.9% of our total EC2 instances will receive the live-update and avoid a reboot. We can also now assure you that all newly launched instances will land on updated capacity, which means for the less than 0.1% of total EC2 instances that require a reboot, you can proactively re-launch these instances in order to avoid the assigned reboot timing (if you prefer)."

</comment><comment><USER3> That's unfortunate. Maybe it is time to rebuild, but this time with resilience in mind?

</comment><comment><USER4> What impact will this have on businesses?</comment>


Wind turbine blades can't be recycled, so they're piling up in landfills - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills <comment><USER2> That 'can't be recycled' clickbait headline is completely refuted by TFA which quotes from one company _already doing it_.

"One start-up, Global Fiberglass Solutions, developed a method to break down blades and press them into pellets and fiber boards to be used for flooring and walls.... 'We can process 99.9% of a blade and handle about 6,000 to 7,000 blades a year per plant...'

<comment><USER3> It's just another excuses in the line that also has the 'its bad for birds' one.

<comment><USER2> Whereas shooting passenger-pigeons for fun and profit was _just fine_.

But, then, scraping the bottom-of-the-barrel has been _in_ for the past 3.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is better by a significant margin than any fossil fuel use the turbine is offsetting. Yes, some material will be wasted, but it is a tiny fraction of the far worse alternative.

I've seen this as a reason not to switch several times, without anyone considering the sheer physical quantity of fuel any one consumer burns into the atmosphere.

<comment><USER5> It seems like this is a completely manageable amount of safe physical waste to bury.

I am curious, however, about the lifecycle analysis for the blades and the energy and emissions that go into producing them. One would think that they could be repaired somewhat indefinitely, but perhaps this is naive.

<comment><USER6> You can't really repair big fibreglass pieces, I suspect.

So you could probably keep the steel tower and put new blades on it (and repair/replace the generators etc), but the blade probably has to be replaced as one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It is true that turbine blades can't easily be recycled. It's also true that they do not represent a large waste stream. I am glad to hear people are working on better solutions.

</comment><comment> kube-system Seems like a pretty inert material, definitely a good candidate for being in a landfill vs. alternatives.

I would say it's a bigger environmental issue that:

> In the European Union, which strictly regulates material that can go into > landfills, some blades are burned in kilns that create cement or in power > plants. But their energy content is weak and uneven and the burning > fiberglass emits pollutants.

<comment><USER8> Waste incinerators, at least in Europe, are subject to very strict emissions regulations. As a result, they tend to have modern emissions collection systems that extract most of the toxic exhaust gases and other pollutants.

<comment> kube-system A turbine blade that hasn't been burned releases even fewer emissions.

<comment><USER9> Airborne emissions maybe, the eventual mechanical breakdown of plastics will deposit microplastics into our water systems.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I was going to ask if they couldn't be crushed/ ground up and reused as filler in construction, etc, but looks like a company is already on it. Nice!

<comment><USER11> My quick read of it lands on them not being toxic, just large and difficult to manage. Seems like they could be used as aggregate in road construction or fill or just about whatever. Likewise, its not like they break down into some shockingly toxic biproduct, so burying them is a fine solution unless refurbishment becomes a real possibility.

<comment><USER10> Seems like direct reuse is not possible due to the blades reaching end of life, but I feel like airplane blades have a much higher threshold for operating health than windmills, could there be some potential for repurposing there?

Then again, I wouldn't want a blade snapping off and falling on me if I'm strolling through a field...

<comment><USER8> Aeroplane wings and wind turbine blades are extremely different. They are made from completely different materials, have completely different shapes and are designed for different purposes. I can't possibly see how either could ever be repurposed for the other.

<comment><USER10> Fair enough, the article stated as much too. Would they be completely worthless in a turbine setting, even if they were free?

<comment><USER12> For one thing turbine blades have to deal with high temperatures.

They're not really the same thing at all.

<comment><USER13> That's why windmills are so carcinogenic. ;(

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

<comment><USER8> > The distribution of recorded events, however, correlates with media coverage > of wind farm syndrome itself, and not with the presence or absence of wind > farms. Neither term is recognised by any international disease > classification system, nor do they appear in any title or abstract in the > United States National Library of Medicine's PubMed database. Wind turbine > syndrome has been characterized as pseudoscience.

I really expect better of HN.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Hating landfills is very popular for some reason.

The materials have been taken from the earth and now they return to the earth.

The problem with CO2 is that it doesn't go back where it came from.

<comment><USER15> I feel the same way. Landfills will be very convenient places to mine in the future.

<comment><USER16> They would have been even better if we hadn't been paying to remove all the moderate value but easy to separate recyclables and ship them overseas. At some point those may be economically worth recycling, instead of us paying Asia to take them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> FUD for "green" tech/energy source alternatives? \--checks source: bloomberg

Yeah that's what I thought. Better switch back to coal because that doesn't take up room in the landfills.

<comment><AUTHOR> Coal in the United States is dying fast. I believe coal is down to 20% electricity generation. Natural gas is simply cheaper.

Fourth generation nuclear power plants look promising, for example:

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/next- generation-n...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/next-generation- nuclear/)

Perhaps we can use more hydrogen in our future:

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/01/09/hydrogen...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2020/01/09/hydrogen- on-the-rise-at-ces-from-drones-and-daimler-trucks-to-toyotas-city-of-the- future/#53f0c08339e2)

<comment><USER18> In the US, largish numbers of people live in places that have historically mined a lot of coal. And by a historical quirk, many of those places are in states that are closely divided between two political parties. A further historical quirk makes those states all-or-nothing in some political elections.

So by appealing to the people who mine coal, you can tip an enormous amount of political power. That makes the mining of coal a massively important issue, because -- rather than despite -- its diminishing contribution to power generation.

<comment><USER17> This is so true it's painful.

I feel bad for these people. I really do. The writing has been on the wall for decades that coal is a bad horse to back, and poverty is keeping their options limited.

This is another example of why we need a better social safety net. Let's retrain those people with skills that will better suit them and their families. There is no reason that they should suffer with this dead-end life/career/poverty.

<comment><USER18> My understanding is that the targets of this resent social safety nets. They view them as demeaning, especially since they are capable of work. But the only work traditionally available in the region is coal mining, and that won't be fixed by retraining. So they see the coal, and the ability to work, and grow resentful that they are forbidden from putting these two things together.

They are also attached to the places, and do not wish to leave. Retraining for new jobs in cities, or even different rural areas, means leaving longstanding family homes.

I need to note that I'm not an expert. I'm speaking here thirdhand at best. But I'll note that in the last Presidential election, when asked to choose between a candidate who promised retraining and social safety nets versus one who promised to re-open the coal mines, they overwhelmingly chose the latter.

<comment><USER19> "They are also attached to the places, and do not wish to leave"

That's kind of a distorted way to look at it. People _do_ leave, and then they aren't included in the population that's under the microscope. So the remainder is always being distilled down, no matter how bad things get, until the outside world decides they can be ignored. Same thing with farmers in the 20th century.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I don't see why anyone should care? Finding a way to recycle wind turbine blades might shave a fraction of a percent off the cost of wind turbines, but that's it. Putting them in landfills is discarding a potential resource, but not an important one.

<comment><USER21> Seems like something that could eventually be used by wildlife, too. Drastically improved from extraction and emission.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Genuine question regarding landfills: What are the real environmental effects of stuff "piling up in landfills"?

I hear that "land filling" is bad but have never gotten a strong reason as to why. Obviously toxic/nuclear materials sitting in landfill is bad, but for other materials, what's the real harm?

Is land filling a better option, then say, ocean dumping (again, for non-toxic materials)?

<comment><USER14> Land filling is bad in the context of throwaway consumer goods that are only used once such as a plastic bag or air tight plastic wrapping. There is also the aspect of expensive appliances breaking that are not repairable. They will have to be sent to the landfill early.

However, this bad reputation absolutely makes no sense in the context of a paid off investment that lasted multiple decades and resulted in a good return.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Low Tech Magazine has some articles on using wood to make more sustainable turbines

[https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/06/wooden-wind- turbines...](https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/06/wooden-wind- turbines.html)

</comment><comment><USER24> This is ultimately a FUD article, likely pushed by oil+gas advertisers and good old sensationalism.

And, oh look, there's already recycling uses planned for them.

Articles like this are for "newspaper scoring", where an issue is broken down into a set of bullet points that are pro and con. As long as the count/score of the bullet points are the same for each side, then the newspaper gets to declare itself fair and balanced.

No heed is taken to the actual impact or importance of the individual bullet points.

Unfortunately, the political consultants also know that overwhelmed voter minds also work this way.

</comment><comment><USER25> Why not sink them and make artificial reefs?

<comment><USER26> Interesting thought, but some problems that come to mind are: 1) Is the density of fiberglass near or lower than that of water? If so, then they are very "sinky". 2) What toxins will leach out of the fiberglass resins after prolonged exposure to sea water? 3) Will the resin matrix decompose and release glass fibers into the sea water?

Buried in a landfill they are mostly inert. I would not be so sure that would be true after prolonged exposure to sea water.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Could they maybe be repurposed as transmission towers? They're long but are they strong enough for that?

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

</comment><comment><USER28> Imagine a fort built out of them!

<comment><USER13> Or a Bjork music video!

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Fibreglass can be reused to make cement which has the benefit of reducing its production emissions by up to 16%. [https://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/recycled- composite...](https://www.compositesworld.com/blog/post/recycled-composites- from-wind-turbine-blades-used-for-cement-co-processing)

</comment><comment><USER30> [https://archive.md/olTU8](https://archive.md/olTU8)

</comment><comment><USER31> Someone told me once that building and maintaining a wind turbine takes more (or same amount of) energy then produced by that same wind turbine in its lifetime. I failed to find research to back that up. Maybe anyone here knows more?

<comment><USER14> If that were true then you would expect countries with wind turbines to produce more CO2 emissions than countries that didn't.

<comment><USER15> Only if they're being manufactured in the country where they're used.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> There is considerable energy and funding being applied to car ion sequestration. Burying fiberglass, or carbon fibre, which does not decompose (creating methane) is sequestering carbon. So it's the right thing to do.

</comment><comment><USER33> I feel like you could def recycle them, at the very least cut them up/reshape them into smaller turbine blades.

</comment><comment><USER34> I am curious. Can't these be thrown in near oceans containing coral reefs and then turn them into new coral reef support structures? Looks like these would be best for such a use.

</comment><comment><USER35> Build a section of The Great Southern Wall with them? ;-)

</comment><comment><USER12> This seems like a clickbait/scare-mongering/right-wing hit piece.

The real story is not that they _can 't_ be dealt, with, more like companies are just being lazy and not dealing with the problem.

The article goes on to mention there's already progress on dealing with this waste..

And this waste is not doing any of the things the fossil fuel industry is so good at. The blades are not burning up in the atmosphere, they're not being ground up and dumped in the ocean, they're not leaching super dangerous liquid chemicals into the soil/water, etc..

No different than the fear mongering that batteries or electric cars are way worse than tail pipe emissions and oil industry pollution for ICE vehicles.

</comment><comment><USER36> Damn, back to coal I guess.

</comment><comment><USER37> This is one of the cons of this green energy movement, there is a shitload of waste from solar, wind, and batteries that nobody wants to talk about.

<comment><USER38> No there isn't. The waste is very limited and quite benign compared to fossil fuel waste. Take these turbine blades. Ok, you have to put them into a landfill after 20 years of use, but as far as things you have to put into a landfill, it is the best you can ask for -- it does not pose a danger to the environment, it will not leak poisons into the groundwater. More or less it will just sit there forever.

In comparison, coal and oil produce air pollution that you cannot sequester, that you have to release in the air for people to breather. Oil further produces liquid waste that is very difficult to sequester and regularly destroys the environment, and poisons drinking water. Coal further produces massive amounts of coal ash, that is incredibly dangerous and hard to store and regularly gets released into the air or the drinking water when hit by extreme whether.

Nuclear produces waste that must be continuously cooled at great cost so that it does not set itself on fire and release massive amounts of radioactive gasses. Even then, the complex cooling systems regularly fail, and do occasionally release massive amounts of radioactive gasses.

All of the above not only produce much more waste but their waste is far more dangerous and damaging.

<comment><USER39> > Nuclear produces waste that must be continuously cooled at great cost so > that it does not set itself on fire and release massive amounts of > radioactive gasses.

Seems like you are talking about high-level waste (HLW) which is just 0.2% [1] of all radioactive waste by volume.

The cooling you are referring to is a passive cooling pond [2], there's no active cooling. There are no radioactive gases escaping from the spent fuel - not small or massive amounts. Spent nuclear fuel is a solid. Liquid waste is from weapons programs, not power generation.

[1] [https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear- fu...](https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel- cycle/nuclear-wastes/radioactive-wastes-myths-and-realities.aspx)

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

Is radioactive fuel wildly more difficult and dangerous to manage than a few thousand inert turbine blades? Absolutely.</comment></comment></comment>


Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2013/10/traditional_chinese_medicine_origins_mao_invented_it_but_didn_t_believe.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Meta comment: If you check out the source of the page, you can see the <h1> and <title> tag read "Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine. But He didn't Believe in It." \- that's the original title I saw / submitted the article under.

Since then the "but he didn't..." has been dropped by Slate from the article itself (I'm guessing as a result of A/B testing by CTR% or similar on Slate's side).

Would kind of suck to be the author of the article in this kind of scenario, watching the title of your article change based on the whims of the web (I guess in that sense its not really your article...)

</comment><comment><USER2> There's a lot that doesn't make sense, but there is a lot that is useful too. I've noticed Chinese women taking ginger on their periods, for example, then looked up ginger and surprise, it actually has been scientifically proven as a nausea killer. Similarly, foot pain relievers often have camphor or menthol in them. These are both proven anesthetics.

<comment><USER3> "I'm sorry, 'herbal medicine', "Oh, herbal medicine's been around for thousands of years!" Indeed it has, and then we tested it all, and the stuff that worked became 'medicine'. And the rest of it is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri, so knock yourselves out."

"Chinese medicine, oh, Chinese medicine! 'But there are billions of Chinese, Chinese medicine must be working.' Here's the skinny on Chinese medicine. A hundred years ago the average life expectancy in China was 30. The life expectancy in China at the moment is 73. And it's not feckin' tiger penis that turned it around for the Chinese. Didn't do much for the tiger, if you don't mind me pointing out."

― Dara Ó Briain

<comment><USER4> This is the related video: [http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=23510](http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=23510)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >>> Cancer.gov, for instance, states that "the oldest medical book known, written in China 4,000 years ago, describes the use of acupuncture to treat medical problems." In fact, the oldest excavated Chinese medical text is no more than 2,300 years old and makes no mention of acupuncture at all

Wow, that is kinda depressing.</comment>


Bacteria can 'outsmart' programmed cell death - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2019-12-bacteria-outsmart-cell-death.html <comment><USER2> Woah... I wonder if bacteria could in some cases drive certain cancers?

Something that fascinates me is just how small many bacteria are. They appear as specks on the most powerful optical microscopes, if at all. Also, a lot of bacteria simply can't be cultivated outside of the environment they are adapted to, and are as such really hard to study.

This study really reminds me of the symbiogenesis framework for thinking about eukaryotic evolution.

<comment><USER3> > Woah... I wonder if bacteria could in some cases drive certain cancers?

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

Very roughly, 1 cancer out of 10 has an infectious cause.

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

The focus in the last decades was mostly about genetic causes of cancer but as it happens for other diseases (see recent discussion on Alzheimer), it is now shifting to other causes. Statnews.com is a good web site to read for lay people like me, who are interested in serious medical related news.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Clarification: This is about bacteria that hide inside cells to avoid the immune system; it's about how they then prevent apoptosis of the host cell, not of themselves (which wouldn't really make sense).

<comment><USER5> themselves or themcellves? ;)

Thank you for posting this clarification--I was definitely a bit clickbaited by the article, but it,'s interesting nonetheless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Original paper: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-019-0620-5](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-019-0620-5)

<comment><USER7> PDF: [https://sci-hub.se/10.1038/s41564-019-0620-5](https://sci- hub.se/10.1038/s41564-019-0620-5)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A number of tick borne pathogens have similar capability (Bartonella, etc).

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2746948/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2746948/)

</comment><comment><USER9> So they release lipopolysaccharide and that somehow keeps cells alive? Can someone eli5 what this suggests?

<comment><USER10> If I understand what you're suggesting, lipopolysaccharide doesn't make cells immortal. It just does the equivalent of making it not work when you hold down the power button to power cycle and force-shutdown your laptop. It lets your malware be free to run and send emails without danger of losing its environment.

<comment><USER9> So what's the significance of this research? Underscoring the importance of clearing away senescent cells?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is it possible for this to cause cancer by causing cells to malfunction in some way?</comment>


CastAR shuts down - <AUTHOR> https://www.polygon.com/2017/6/26/15877804/castar-shut-down <comment><USER2> Sorry to see this happen. They were nice folks. But the big guns got AR religion and just pulled away with more money, installed base, etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is sad on many different levels. I look forward to hearing what Jeri is going to do next.

I was also reading about Coraid which had humble beginnings, got some venture funds and tried to go big but exploded, and now the original founder has bought back the assets and is running the company as a lean startup. One can hope there is an opportunity here for something like that.</comment>