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fedups

264 karma · joined November 6, 2013

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fedups··on Netflix stops charging customers who never watch
Planet money had a story where a similar superficially good idea ended up with Etrade selling a man's Amazon stock and deactivating his account after he didn't log in for a certain period of time. He was able to reclaim about $8000 for stock that would be worth ~$100k today.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/799345159

fedups··on Whole Foods is tracking and scoring stores it deems at risk of unionizing
"If you put Amazon in the headline, they will come." Interesting call that the story isn't compelling enough if it "just" involves Whole Foods.
fedups··on Sucralose with carbohydrates may blunt the body’s ability to metabolize sugar
Allulose is an interesting sweetener that has the same molecular formula as fructose, and IMO tastes much more similar to table sugar than other sweeteners.

It has been shown to lower glycemic and insulin response when taken with other carbs https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19155592

I'm guessing because of the molecular similarity I've found it to have similar browning as sugar when cooking.

A few downsides--it has a cooling sensation depending on what I use it to sweeten. Also if I consume too much it can cause bloating (a downside of not being absorbed like sugar is). In general it doesn't look like it's as well researched as other sweeteners, so it's hard to tell if there are more subtle/long term downsides.

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psicose

fedups··on Doctors are turning to YouTube to fill in gaps in their training
Sometimes I google home maintenance videos for information on a project, and I need to spend a lot of time looking for a certain level of quality of the source since I'm a complete amateur. I'll often want to confirm by looking for multiple videos and making sure the sources converge on some basic points since I have so little background.

But since I'm much more knowledgeable about certain programming or mathematical techniques, I can do much quicker searches to refresh my memory since my BS filter is going to go off pretty quickly, and I can verify the truth of a source based on a more extensive background.

The fear mongering in this article requires you to assume that doctors are much more like amateur carpenters clicking on links at random rather than highly trained practitioners with years of education in their field.

fedups··on When will Google shut down Stadia?
In the source they cite (https://gcemetery.co/), do they consider only products that have died? Or do they track all products that have started? (hopefully they have right censoring, otherwise it seems they're underestimating the average lifespan).

I'm having a hard time finding the data in tabular format.

fedups··on Government data shows student income and debt by college degree
Here's an interactive tool they put up as well that doesn't look paywalled.

https://graphics.wsj.com/dynamic-inset-iframer/?url=https://...

Hard to find the data backing it, though.

fedups··on 40% of multinational profits are shifted to tax havens each year
It's a bit odd seeing Zucman as a contributor here, considering his recent economic advice has been criticized for assuming that tax avoidance isn't a thing.
fedups··on Recognizing Graphs from Images
Thanks for the response! FWIW, I find nothing lacking in the application, but I'm working on an ipad and it seems a native app would be less constrained by the browser quality.
fedups··on Recognizing Graphs from Images
It sounds cliche, but I've found the yEd graph editor crucial in reading a Dostoevsky novel and keeping up with all the characters and their relations. Is yworks pretty much the only game in town when it comes to graph editing?
fedups··on TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free
I like propublica's reporting on this but geez, this needs an award for one of the top HN obsessions. Within the past 7 months:

TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans from Filing Taxes for Free; 211 points -- 54 minutes ago

TurboTax to charge more lower-income customers; 144 points -- 3 months ago

Congress Scraps Provision to Restrict IRS from Competing with TurboTax; 82 points -- 4 months ago

Listen to TurboTax Lie to Get Out of Refunding Overcharged Customers; 171 points -- 5 months ago

TurboTax Uses a “Military Discount” to Trick Troops into Paying to File Taxes; 170 points -- 5 months ago

TurboTax and H&R Block Saw Free Tax Filing as a Threat; 355 points -- 6 months ago

TurboTax Hides Its Free File Page from Search Engines; 881 points -- 6 months ago

TurboTax Uses Dark Patterns to Trick You into Paying to File Your Taxes; 608 points -- 6 months ago

How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing (2013); 462 points -- 7 months ago

edit: if you _still_ haven't gotten enough TurboTax reporting, there's a great Reply All episode that covers propublica's reporting as well https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/6nhgol

fedups··on Exposure to air pollution is linked to an increase in violent crime
I'm not sure about how much causation is being captured here, but I don't doubt the effect directionally. Here's a paper that came to similar conclusions, which I think captures causality better

https://www.nber.org/papers/w25489

Basically it compares performance of students who transferred into schools upwind vs downwind of major highways. Unsurprisingly, those who ended up in downwind schools saw

> decreases in test scores, more behavioral incidents, and more absences

fedups··on Lightning Strikes Twice as Much over Shipping Lanes
Never heard about Circa before, but just read a little about them and their feature that has the goal

> "to break down a story into its core elements: facts, stats, quotes and media", as opposed to a summary where content is reduced for quicker reading or users are linked elsewhere for the full story

Do you know of any other [general, not tech-specific] media outlets with this philosophy? I find most sources these days are unhelpful even though they think they're adding value with emphasis on narratives.

fedups··on The Power of One Push-Up
In the cited study, a significant difference between highest pushup group and lowest pushup group is a mean age of 35 and 48 years, respectively. It is well known that age is the strongest predictor of cardiovascular events.

First chart under 'figures / tables' https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

fedups··on Technical Details on the Recent Firefox Add-On Outage
Do they have a better channel for deploying hot-fixes? Maybe I'm a bit of a squish but I'm pretty agnostic of how they deploy fixes to me so long as my addons start working again.
fedups··on Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances
> Searching within Multiple Tabs – Did you know that if you enter a ‘%’ in your Awesome Bar, you can search the tabs on your computer?

This will be a big help for me. Makes me wonder how many more there are that are just too cumbersome to discover.

fedups··on Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index – 2019 edition
I'd be curious how individual US states stack up here--it seems like there would be quite a bit of variance (and I'm sure the US isn't the only country whose stats become much less informative when aggregated to a single number).
fedups··on Cancer in America Is Way Down, for the Wealthy Anyway
I've read that bringing male mortality rates down to that of females would have about the same impact on mortality rates as curing cancer would.
fedups··on The myth of whiteness in classical sculpture
Professor Bond and this finding are discussed as a case study of 'polarization cycles,' where innocuous claims somehow give rise to controversy in the book "Coddling of the American Mind." (this is obliquely referenced around the middle of the OP). For those interested in these online social dynamics I'd highly recommend the book.
fedups··on LDL-C Does Not Cause Cardiovascular Disease: A Comprehensive Review (2018)
Does this claim apply equally to the relationship of LDL-P measurements to CVD as well?
fedups··on New York’s success provides road map for others taking aim at pedestrian deaths
Drivers are people, my friend
fedups··on Heart surgeons refuse difficult operations to avoid poor mortality ratings
Econtalk had a good interview this month on this general phenomenon discussing the book "The Tyranny of Metrics"

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2018/04/jerry_muller_on.htm...

fedups··on Facebook Container Extension: Take control of how you’re being tracked
'False equivalency!' seems to be a popular new phrase to prevent self-reflection. If the CA situation is only bad insofar as it helped the GOP, then that's fine, but if you're interested in broader change regarding privacy then a knee-jerk partisan supremacy won't benefit anyone.
fedups··on You probably don't want to run Firefox Nightly any more
Yeah, and I would assume Nightly users would be more savvy about opting out in preferences if that's their wish.
fedups··on Why the U.S. Spends So Much More Than Other Nations on Health Care
I was hopeful to see something about the difference in how countries control the supply of doctors, but looks like we'll need to wait longer till someone thinks to look into it. These well-trodden 'insights' must be too tempting.
fedups··on People Who Speed-Listen to Podcasts
> The pauses in speech seem to take FOREVER

No kidding. Overcast has a "Smartspeed" feature that cuts out these pauses. The counter on my app says it's saved me 195 hours to date.

fedups··on Firefox Features Google as Default Search Provider in the U.S.
I believe Santosh83 means even if you leave it on, it will be anonymized performance data
fedups··on The Walmart Tax Every American Taxpayer Pays
I was expecting a discussion of the minimum wage that Walmart lobbies for in order to hurt smaller competitors. Probably expecting too much subtlety.
fedups··on White House Proposes Slashing Tax Rates for Individuals and Businesses
The amount of effort arguing for its historical acceptance is a true testament to the rhetorical importance of status quo bias.
fedups··on White House Opens Door To Crackdown On Recreational Marijuana
Bonus points to those who see the corollary applied to their own team
fedups··on It’s Easy to Make Enemies of People We Only Read About
> In philosophy and rhetoric, the principle of charity requires interpreting a speaker's statements to be rational and, in the case of any argument, considering its best, strongest possible interpretation. [0]

Although it seems super rare in internet conversation, a good way to practice is to keep in mind all the ways the Other Team misrepresents My Team and generalize this when the Other Team says something dreadful on the surface.

But in the absence of the charity, concise, effective communication becomes all the more crucial.

[0]- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity

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