Hacker News Reader

astebbinon Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

I'd love to know why the parent has been downvoted.

Further evidence, if any is needed:

"The use of lethal force on the Berlin Wall was an integral part of the East German state's policy towards its border system."

"The Stasi took charge of "corpse cases" and those injured while trying to cross the border, who were transported to hospitals run by the Stasi or the police where they would recuperate before being transferred to Stasi prisons. The Stasi also took sole responsibility for the disposal of the dead and their possessions. Bodies were not returned to relatives but were cremated, usually at the crematorium at Baumschulenweg. Occasionally the cost of the cremations was covered by the victims themselves using money taken from their pockets.[25]

Stasi officers posing as policemen would inform the relatives, though not before trying to obtain "valuable pieces of information on the border violation". Deaths would be stated as being due to "a border provocation of his own causing", "a fatal accident of his own causing" or "drowning in a border waterway". Every border death was investigated in detail to identify how the attempt had been made, whether there were any vulnerabilities in the border system that needed to be remedied and whether anyone else had been involved. If necessary, the family, relatives, friends, colleagues and neighbours were put under surveillance."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deaths_at_the_Berlin_W...

astebbinon Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Peter_Fechter

Many similar cases.

astebbinon Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

“The first thing you notice is the quiet. Then the white strips of paper stretched diagonally across the front doors of stores that look like they were vacated in a hurry. Once you get close enough, you can read the painted serial numbers on the house walls — WB-BUK 1 to 15 on one street — that tell you no one is coming back to these homes, and that many of those who lived there have been detained.

Welcome to Xinjiang in China’s north west.”

One of many such reports.

https://www.ft.com/content/ac0ffb2e-8b36-11e8-b18d-0181731a0...

astebbinon Google's censored Chinese search engine: a catalogue of ethical violations?

Local laws in East Berlin sanctioned the murder of Germans who sought to escape. Local laws in Vichy France required people to report hidden Jews to the police. Local laws in America under Jim Crow forbade interracial marriage, and denied Blacks their right to vote. Would you consider it unfortunate that some held these local laws to be unethical?

I’d ascribe no more legitimacy to similar laws made by an unelected, authoritarian government with a history of kidnapping, torturing, and killing nonviolent dissidents. I’m privately amazed that the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights is now a subject of controversy. Why do we believe the Chinese Communist Party when it says, “China is special, and the Chinese people do not deserve basic human freedoms?”

astebbinon Burying ‘One Child’ Limits, China Pushes Women to Have More Babies

I don't know what America has to do with anything, but China's income inequality is also worse than America's, so there's that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...

astebbinon Burying ‘One Child’ Limits, China Pushes Women to Have More Babies

The one-child policy also resulted in the worst gender imbalance in the world, which "could lead to instability as more men remain unmarried, raising the risks of anti-social and violent behavior."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-says-its-ge...

astebbinon Giant shipload of soybeans drifts off China, victim of trade war with US

If this were true, surely it would be in China's best interest to cease its many protectionist trade policies immediately. On the contrary, protectionism seems to work well when other countries are willing to put up with it, either for access to your workforce or access to your markets.

astebbinon China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp

“At first, Bekali did not want the AP to publish his account for fear that his sister and mother in China would be detained and sent to re-education.

But on March 10, back in China, the police took his sister, Adila Bekali. A week later, on March 19, they took his mother, Amina Sadik. And on April 24, his father, Ebrayem.“

astebbinon China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp

It denies them in kind, in intent, and in scope and scale.

“Six million Jews have been relocated by the German government for the purpose of poverty reduction.”

astebbinon China is detaining a million Uighur muslims in a secret camp

There is relevance to state-of-the-art surveillance technologies deployed in Xinjiang:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/china-s-xinjiang-p...

astebbinon Ask HN: Do you cover the camera/mic on your computer/phone?

Hypothetical: as the cost of mass storage continues to plunge, why wouldn’t less-scrupulous states gather as much dirt as possible on anyone of even the remotest national interest (through intermediaries, of course), in case it ever becomes valuable?

The cost/benefit equation there seems pretty clear. As a competitor state, his much would YOU pay for the next U.S. President’s private Facebook message history? A million dollars? A hundred million? Trade deals in the billions could be at stake.

astebbinon What can defend against off-the-shelf drone weapons?

This gun-drone is real, however, and may have already been deployed in Israel:

https://youtu.be/VaTW8uAo_6s

It carries a stripped-down AR-style carbine, and makes shots at what looks like 50-100 yards with sufficient accuracy.

astebbinon What can defend against off-the-shelf drone weapons?

I imagine a scaled-down version of the U.S. Army’s C-RAM, or Israel’s Trophy system, could work quite well for VIPs. Some drones can be VERY fast (think hobby-sized jet engine fast), so you’d need active radar and full automation to stand any kind of a chance.

Perhaps you’d use shotgun shells loaded with rock salt, so any overshoot into a crowd would be less-than-lethal.

astebbinon GE Engineer Linked to China Stole Power Plant Technology, FBI Says

China's government of that same period was hardly innocent, committing numerous genocidal wars of territorial expansion [0][1]. Hardly useful to compare either side of that historical situation to the present. Multi-generational assignment of guilt is something best left to the North Korean criminal justice system, I think.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzungar_genocide [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Great_Campaigns

astebbinon Japanese Medical School Deducted Points from Exam Scores of Female Applicants

Yes, that’s also a good example of obfuscated racial preference in college admissions (assuming the case has merit, and looking at the numbers I’m under the strong impression that it does).

astebbinon Japanese Medical School Deducted Points from Exam Scores of Female Applicants

Yes, but not with modified test scores, as that is explicitly illegal. Instead, schools consider softer criteria which leave wiggle room for race to be de facto weighted as a factor:

https://www.npr.org/2015/06/23/416736883/race-conscious-admi...

astebbinon China is laying the groundwork for a post-American world order

As I understand it, an enormous percentage of global trade sails through the South China Sea. From a pragmatic standpoint, it behooves American interests to support the Vietnamese and Philippine territorial claims so that one nation (China) does not militarily and/or politically dominate such a vital trade route.

From an idealistic standpoint, America supports the notions of state sovereignty and the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea simply out of principle. Like Apple’s stance on customer data privacy, the U.S. government defends freedom as a matter of pragmatism first, and then talks up the altruistic angle :)

astebbinon Uber shuts down self-driving trucks unit

It’s also life-shortening to suddenly and unexpectedly lost your job, especially when you’re over 40 and “retraining” isn’t really an option, or when all the other jobs have been automated away.

astebbinon China is laying the groundwork for a post-American world order

>I think many Americans are hoping China tries to take a leadership role in Asia and near neighbors

Could you elaborate on this? My impression was that China has recently been bullying its neighbors, particularly Vietnam and to some extent the Philippines, over oil and gas deposits in the South China Sea. I can't imagine that's great for regional stability.

I also wonder if many Americans would want China to take on a leadership role with respect to Taiwan. I doubt the Taiwanese would take such a view.

astebbinon ArenaNet ‘folded like a cheap card table,’ says fired Guild Wars 2 writer

I’m struck by the apparent no-warning nature of the firing. Were internal expectations clearly set for how employees should behave when interacting with fans and customers? Do companies like ArenaNet with especially vocal fan communitiecs generally have codes of conduct for employee-customer interaction?

astebbinon Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras

I can’t tell if this comment is sincere or sarcastic. Poe’s Law in full effect:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

astebbinon Inside China’s Dystopian Dreams: A.I., Shame and Lots of Cameras

Snowden has certainly paid a price for his leaks. However, the Washington Post, New York Times, and others were not punished for re-publishing or discussing the content of these leaks. Historically, American papers have successfully defended their right to do so in court (the Pentagon Papers, Watergate). Leakers also do often maintain anonymity, obtain legal protection, or receive pardons when their leaks appear to serve the public interest (Daniel Ellsberg, Deep Throat, Manning). The situation in China for newspapers, journalists, and sources is far worse.

Manning, by the way, leaked an enormous unredacted cache of documents pertaining to active, ongoing military operations. This leak very likely resulted in the deaths of anti-Taliban and anti-Islamist informants and cooperators. Not all leaks are good at all times for all people, and some confidentiality rules exist for good reason.

astebbinon The Bay Area’s tech boom in historical and social context

Relative to income, it may be true that most people can now buy cheaper, better TVs (for example). This is small consolation if most people are also paying more for less in terms of housing, healthcare, and education. These costs also dwarf what most people spend on consumer goods. The quality of housing, healthcare, and education also, I would argue, has a much greater impact on quality of life than the size of your TV.

astebbinon Study shows where the brain transforms seeing into acting

If we assume your hypothesis is correct, wouldn’t this research still be useful in the context of a particular mouse? I imagine researchers could identify specialized brain areas first, and then dissect that particular mouse’s brain to see just how those neurons had been spatially organized (assuming this is useful? I’m only a layman).

Admittedly, this sort of technique wouldn’t work well for human subjects.

astebbinon Sequoia Capital China Said To Invest In Bitmain's $400M Round At $12B Valuation

Monero has tried something along these lines:

https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-kill-switch-monero-going-war...

astebbinon How a Pentagon Contract Became an Identity Crisis for Google

>They are not internationally reviewed and approved

Devil's advocate: what makes ROE any better if they're approved by China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, for example? Western European-descendent values and cultural norms are a global minority. You might not like the ROE favored by Indonesia in East Timor, or by the Saudis in Yemen, or by Sudan in Darfur.

astebbinon Deadly Chinese Fentanyl Is Creating a New Era of Drug Kingpins

It’s how dealers drum up new business. When one customer ODs, other customers flock to the dealer whose product just proved its potency.

astebbinon California to become first U.S. state mandating solar on new homes

Gas allows for more precise and responsive heat control per burner. To the average homeowner, this doesn’t make much of a difference, but I understand it to be of great importance for professional chefs and passionate hobbyists.

astebbinon Huawei, Failing to Crack U.S. Market, Signals a Change in Tactics

Isn't this comparison a little disingenuous? The scale, scope, and legality of government surveillance (not to mention censorship) in the U.S. absolutely pales in comparison to the situation in China.

If all Chinese people developed a habit of using Facebook, perhaps they could openly criticize aspects of both the U.S. and Chinese governments, instead of just the former.

EDIT: I'm not surprised to see downvotes when the top-voted comment on this link (which is about a Chinese company getting into the U.S., and has nothing directly to do with Google or Facebook being blocked in China) is essentially, "And you are lynching Negroes" [0].

If anyone would care to disagree with words, I'd love to hear your reasoning or relevant experience.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes

astebbinon China Slaps Tariffs on U.S. Products

Glaringly, the NYT omits the scope of these new Chinese tariffs (on $3 billion in goods [0]), which in comparison to the $60 billion in tariffs recently imposed on China would seem to present Trump with quite a victory.

[0] http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/news/economy/china-us-tariff...