Hacker News Reader

LastZactionHeroon The European Union Is Facing Its Worst Recession Ever. Watch Out, World

> That's a real issue in the developing world; in the developed world the resources exist to buffer the temporary additional low-end economic impact

That seems like a pretty sterile way to describe it.

Right now, in the (presumably) developed US, 1 in 5 children don't have enough food, 3x the amount during 2008. That's a result of years of policy choices, but one particularly policy choice caused it to spike. If there's a resource buffer, it's not buffering.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/05/06/the-covid...

LastZactionHeroon The European Union Is Facing Its Worst Recession Ever. Watch Out, World

As an example, 9 million people die each year due to hunger or hunger-related issues, many of them children. 135 million face food insecurity. Due to lockdowns and recession, the World Food Program estimates the toll will double this year. And hunger is just one cause of death that a recession can lead to (suicides, substance abuse, etc).

Lockdowns might save lives, and I can't blame public health officials for protecting their community, but I personally fear more lives will be lost due to economic costs. They just might be poorer, quieter lives. And while death is, of course, final, suffering in life should count for something too.

https://www.wfp.org/news/covid-19-will-double-number-people-...

LastZactionHeroon ‘It’s gone haywire’: When Covid-19 arrived in rural America

Whoa, you have local businesses?

Our leaders have deemed that even curbside pickup is far too dangerous, so Amazon is the only shop in town.

LastZactionHeroon Ticketmaster changes policy, no longer offering refunds on postponed shows

I'm sure Ticketmaster knows this is illegal. They probably weighed their options and saw:

1) refund every ticket as required and run out of money immediately

2) do whatever they can to have some operating capital, and maybe continue existing until summer 2021-ish when live music is once again legal, then deal with a lawsuit in a time when courts are once again operating

I loathe Ticketmaster, so #1 seems fine to me, but I get their decision as a business. Honestly even #2 seems like a hail mary.

LastZactionHeroon Amazon to add 75,000 more jobs amid coronavirus pandemic

You gotta get on at midnight, order two weeks out, and get a weekly pipeline going. I used this method to get a bag of flour the other day, it was amazing.

LastZactionHeroon Fear and beauty: two weeks living with Covid-19

> Touch a door handle?

Like... with your hand? Not in a glove that you throw out immediately? I just can't fathom touching a door handle.

I saw someone just open a door at a public place the other day and it was utterly baffling to see.

LastZactionHeroon Show HN: My Morning Routine – Share and Explore Routines

6:45am-7:??am: Convince a toddler to put on pants

LastZactionHeroon Show HN: Firefox addon that hides news articles about Covid-19

Like everyone else, I'm indoors with just my family, ordering food/groceries, wiping everything down, wearing masks/gloves if we ever have to go out, explaining to my toddler why he can't play with friends, etc, etc. For the last month, and probably the next two or three.

What else do you want from me? Do I really have to spend every moment watching the slow train wreck from every angle? COVID is covered literally everywhere, you can't not see it.

The good is just maybe not falling into total depression, alcoholism, or worse.

LastZactionHeroon Boeing didn't conduct end-to-end tests on Starliner before its failed flight

I really don't want anyone to have the impression that this team tried to take shortcuts

- man who let his team take shortcuts

NASA is still thinking whether to allow Boeing to proceed with its first manned flight to prevent delays or to require the company to successfully complete an unmanned flight first.

Yeah, it's probably fine now. I mean, ugh, look at all these passing tests!

It's staggering to me that Boeing is confident enough to not want another unmanned fight. After all this, you really want to roll the dice again?

LastZactionHeroon What happens to all the old wind turbines?

> It stretches a hundred metres from a bend in the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming.

100m? For real?

> Burying them doesn't sound very green.

Why do I care if something doesn't sounds green? Tell me an actual consequence.

LastZactionHeroon How is search so bad? A case study

You're located in Berlin. It found a page on Reddit about buying phones in Berlin.

Not saying you're wrong about the dates but... I dunno... seems like an odd query. "Phone to buy?" And why not just search Reddit?

This site feels like we're just complaining about nothing these days. (Downvote away!)

LastZactionHeroon Volkswagen exec admits full self-driving cars 'may never happen'

never? What does that even mean? We've only been driving cars like 100 years. Only had computers for 60, and decent portable ones for 20. Self-driving literally just became remotely possible, and you're telling me never?

This is an off-the-cuff remark turned into a clickbait headline for a fairly bland article.

LastZactionHeroon Tesla Surges Above $500, Leaving Analyst Targets in the Dust

Fun is pretty subjective. I'm not a car guy and don't have much experience with nice cars.

But, this isn't a nice car- I paid $6,500. I'm just comparing it to every ICE car I've driven (aside from that one time I got 20 minutes in a Lamborghini), and definitely every ICE car you can purchase used for $6,500.

But given the acceleration and smoothness, I'm just betting it's more fun to drive than nearly every car described in commercials fun to drive.

LastZactionHeroon Tesla Surges Above $500, Leaving Analyst Targets in the Dust

If commercials tell me anything about what car buyers value, there are so many other apsects John Q Public would appreciate!

John likes fast cars. And oh boy my Nissan Leaf is fun to drive! Mountain driving feels like floating silently into the air. Instant torque, no gear shifting.

John may also appreciate the extra leg room, as even a compact car gains a lot of room without a gas engine.

John also likes saving money and convenience. And while gas isn't super expensive, I wake up every morning with a full charge for about $1. Gas stations just aren't a part of my life. (charging away from home is still a PITA, FWIW)

John might also like skipping the majority of standard maintenance. No oil changes. No random belts. Less brake wear (I think?) from regeneration. Sure, after 100k you'll probably want a new battery, but it's a known cost that's dropping.

Maybe EVs need to drop the 'environmental' badge and focus on how awesome they are.

LastZactionHeroon The most important scientific problems have yet to be solved (1897)

This is a great rebuttal to about 90% of HN comments.

LastZactionHeroon Electronic Weapons: Gangsters Gone Jamming

I wonder if it would be possible today to bring back old school navigation techniques (sun, clock, stars, inertia) with the kind of precision we're used to with gps.

LastZactionHeroon Sound waves used to separate microplastics from laundry wastewater

From what I've been told, that's basically the plastic industry's philosophy: it was energy that took a side trip as a bottle on the way to the furnace.

But, do what you want with that anecdote (toxic, wasteful, unsustainable, etc)

LastZactionHeroon Google Assistant Can Now Translate Languages on Your Phone

Japanese is really difficult to translate. There's so much unstated context, totally different sentence structure, concepts that don't exist in English. I use Google Translate a lot with Japanese, but more to check my work. I'm not sure it could even really work with this kind of interface (sentence a in -> sentence b out).

Check out jisho.org- it will translate and call out sentence structure, and is clearer about assumptions.

I almost wish Google Translate provided a confidence measure.

LastZactionHeroon Indiana manipulated report on Amazon worker’s death, investigation says

It's embarrassing to watch proud cities (my hometown) humiliate themselves like game show contestants for this HQ.

LastZactionHeroon Farewell, Cortana

It's really nice to be occupied cooking dinner still be able to get a quick answer to "what's backscatter radiation"

What the heck are you cooking?!

LastZactionHeroon Don't Call Yourself a Programmer, and Other Career Advice (2011)

I've hired for the stack specifically and it really narrowed our applicant pool. Lately I've relaxed this filter. We're a Rails app, but what if there was a really great engineer that uses Python or Node?

They might not know the right libraries to use, but would probably know there are libraries, have a good concept of application design in general, and know how to ask the right questions. And we're hoping to hire someone for years.

LastZactionHeroon Uber and Lyft don't have a right to exist

I've worked a few software developer jobs- particularly at very early startups- that were probably illegal. Either as an employee treated way too much like a contractor, or a contractor treated way too much like an employee.

LastZactionHeroon Reporting on the State of the Climate in 2018

Might want to check out the 'My Climate Journey' podcast: https://www.myclimatejourney.co Lots of great interviews with people working on climate.

LastZactionHeroon Reporting on the State of the Climate in 2018

I'm genuinely happy to see this depressing information on a .gov domain. I'd assumed the official federal government climate policy is 'Hoax, everything's fine.'

Were the folks at NOAA allowed to publish this? Did they have to clear it by someone? Did anyone get fired?

LastZactionHeroon Rocket Lab - Reusability Plans for Electron Rocket via Helicopter Catching

Yeah, I gotta get a new job.

LastZactionHeroon SpaceX faces daunting challenges if it’s going to win the internet space race

Given that regulations were once written, I got to think that regulations can change. If there's a technology that really works, and people really want/need it, and it solves the expensive problem of connecting rural communities, I don't see regulators just being like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 'Yeah, that'd be cool, but law's the law! We already printed these books!'

And if other countries have it and it prevents yours from 'staying competitive', important people pay attention.

And if that civic approach doesn't work, some rich farmer tells his senator buddy on a hunting trip that he wants Starlink to watch Netflix in the woods, and the senator tells the regulator to make it happen.

LastZactionHeroon Humans have made 8.3bn tons of plastic since 1950

I'm not a plastics guy (so correct me if I'm wrong) but my impression is that it's not either-or. Some parts of the crude oil is better for fuels, some for plastics. It's so cheap because it's a byproduct of the refining we were going to do anyway.

I've been told that the plastic companies would prefer to burn it for energy for disposal, the idea being that it was destined to be energy, and that path had a short detour as a cup. Not saying its a great plan, but it's a plan that let's them sell more plastic.

LastZactionHeroon Robocalls are overwhelming hospitals and patients

Kinda ironic, since letting your bank/doctor/employer call from the same outbound number is literally the purpose of spoofing.

LastZactionHeroon Reinventing the Small Wind Turbine

I love this. Building a small wind turbine from as scratch as possible has been a fantasy project of mine for years.

LastZactionHeroon Deepfake porn and the ethics of being able to watch whatever you desire

Ordinarily, Billy would work hard to make money with his paper route, then he'd use the money to buy dinner for Mavis, thus earning a slim chance to perform the reproductive act... But in a world where teens can date robots, why should he bother? Why should anyone bother?!

- Futurama, I Dated a Robot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrrADTN-dvg