galvanist

yikes!

I think that some ongoing discussion of the STEM gender gap and other difficult group introspection is useful and important and I hope we can navigate the line between being self-aware and beating a field of dead horses.

Anyway my interest in this now annual survey (and the short-lived sexual orientation survey and the hypothetical race survey) is more self-serving and not so much about how to solve a problem. I'm interested in a profile on HN, as a community, to help me decide how much attention to pay / weight to give to elements of certain discussions here. If we're just a straight white dude monoculture then I want to factor that into my thinking. Come to think of it, I'd be interested to learn about the overall gender / age / ethnicity / sexual orientation / religion / country of origin demographics of other groups that I sometimes pay attention to (like Interesting People) especially when the community has a voting role in discussion moderation (like HN or reddit).

I think that you are interpreting a sarcastic comment literally. The linked article condemns the ridiculous device in question. Unless of course I'm double-reverse mis-interpreting your comment...

This is the study they seem to rely on most: http://www.givedirectly.org/pdf/DFID%20cash-transfers-eviden...

Someone should do this, but like for real. Start with a talk on the existing peer reviewed literature, including history and methodology. Tell me if we have evidence that meditation produces positive outcomes and what those are. Show the experiments and results. Show me live FMRI/EEG/EKG readings from good meditators. Tell me how to meditate. Let me get some guided practice. Let me try some biofeedback. Have some workshops, Q&A, etc. Don't lean on religion. Don't try to tie this into particle physics or some other transcendental nonsense. Don't talk to me about superpowers. I'll pay good money for an event like that.

I second that plan. Or instead of farming in Australia do something else that is outside your comfort zone. Do some WWOOFing, crew a vessel at sea as a janitor or cook, get a job in McMurdo for a few seasons, do something from cooljobs.com, look for low-level embassy jobs, teach English to students abroad, apply to the peace corps. And frankly, many giant evil multinational corporations have some of low-level international jobs, sell-out for a little while. ;)

An english language story reporting the same news about this new Parisian developer school "42": http://www.rudebaguette.com/2013/03/26/rumor-confirmed-xavie...

I agree. Also, I'm happy to see people using the term AstroTurf correctly!

I read "two critical plugins keep me stuck" and mis-completed the sentence in my head with "NoScript and GreaseMonkey."

Spammers and malware authors sometimes use this in an attempt to obfuscate URLs.

This reminds me of Ursus Wehrli's work. http://www.ted.com/talks/ursus_wehrli_tidies_up_art.html