Hacker News Reader

helloworldon Why the Industrial Revolution Didn’t Happen in China

Amid all the gloomy U.S. Presidential campaign rhetoric, this made me smile:

There's a debate about the extent to which everything that can be invented has been invented. Have we picked all the low hanging fruit, can we continue to grow the way we did? I take a very optimistic view. I think if you want to summarize the future of technology, the short summary is, "You ain’t seen nothing yet."

helloworldon A typo skewed the history of HIV in the US and vilified an innocent man

I'd thought that "Patient Zero" was jargon from the world of public health, but it apparently became widely used only after the publication of "And the Band Played On," a 1987 bestseller about the AIDS epidemic by Randy Shilts:

Back in 1984, the term Patient Zero was not normally used to describe an outbreak’s first case, said Dr. Jaffe, a co-author of the new Nature paper. "I don’t remember who first used it," he said. "But after Randy Shilts did, we started saying it ourselves."[1]

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/27/health/hiv-patient-zero-ge...

helloworldon Inside the Development of Light, the Tiny Digital Camera That Outperforms DSLRs

Our first-generation L16 camera will start reaching consumers early next year, for an initial retail price of $1,699.

It's a cool concept, but I'm hoping that the second generation is a lot cheaper.

helloworldon Errors from Microsoft's Cloud

With apologies to the anonymous wag(s) who long ago composed Windows desktop error messages in haiku format [1]:

  Windows Azure crashed.
  I am the Blue Screen of Death.
  No one hears your screams.

In fairness, I should note that I've personally had no problems with Microsoft cloud services.

[1] http://soler7.com/IFAQ/WindowsErrorHaiku.html

helloworldon A New Tack to Stave Off Alzheimer's Years Before the First Symptom

[W]e know there is little relationship between the amount of amyloid in one’s brain and your memory function. In fact, those “super-agers”—your 95-year-old great-great-aunt who finishes the crossword puzzle in 20 minutes, is president of the bridge club and has a better golf handicap than you—may have just as many amyloid plaques in her brain as AD patients.

Another AD researcher, Rudolph Tanzi, recently made the same point, suggesting that it's the inflammation caused by these plaques in some patients that leads to dementia:

http://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-2016/alzheimers...

helloworldon When Is It OK to Mine Hacked Emails?

This is definitely a knotty issue:

Glenn Greenwald vociferously defends journalists who dig into the emails, regardless of what details they unearth. For someone who has been such a strong voice about government violations of email privacy, I would have assumed that Greenwald would express some outrage that a powerful government might have stolen personal emails to promote its agenda.

helloworldon Threat Group-4127 Targets Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign

If 2-Step Verification had been required for email accounts at hillaryclinton.com, would that have thwarted the attack?

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2548882?hl=en

helloworldon Show HN: Advenjure – Interactive fiction on the terminal and in the browser

Does anyone else remember playing Zork?

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29885/eaten-grue-brief-histor...

helloworldon Meet one of the world's most groundbreaking scientists. He's 34. (2015)

This caught my eye:

Driving home in the gathering dark one autumn evening, mother and son were struck by the sight of falling leaves, dead and dying after lives measured in mere months. They spoke about how little time anyone has, she recalled, and how easy it is for a life to disappear without the slightest trace that it had ever been. "It just seemed important to me to try my best to make a difference," Zhang said.

helloworldon Why Are Politicians So Obsessed with Manufacturing?

I wasn't aware of these facts:

--[T]here can be no revival of American manufacturing, because there has been no collapse. Because of automation, there are far fewer jobs in factories. But the value of stuff made in America reached a record high in the first quarter of 2016, even after adjusting for inflation.

--[T]here were 64,000 steelworkers in America last year, and 820,000 home health aides.... Soon, we will be living in the United States of Home Health Aides, yet the candidates keep talking about steelworkers.

Given the opportunity, I think I'd vote for McKinsey, Bain, or BCG to manage the executive branch instead of our current Presidential candidates.

helloworldon Not One New York Police Officer Has a Body Camera

In the recent Charlotte police shooting incident, it was disappointing to see how unhelpful the body-camera video was. I'm not sure whether that was an anomaly, or whether it's just very difficult to get useful footage from a body camera.

helloworldon Penn Station Reborn

Just a meta note about this article: I loved the swipeable before-and-after graphics. They really helped me understand the proposed design in a way that the words alone couldn't.

(BTW, I'm typing this from an Amtrak train bound for Penn Station, which has long been my least favorite place in Manhattan!)

helloworldon Here's my plan to save Twitter: let's buy it

I didn't know this about the Green Bay Packers -- or that the NFL has since banned similar ownership arrangements:

The Packers are owned by the fans, not a wealthy owner operating with a profit-at-all-costs (PAAC) philosophy. The Green Bay Packers are a publicly-owned non-profit with a unique stock ownership structure. Green Bay’s bylaws state that the Packers are “a community project, intended to promote community welfare.”[1]

[1] http://www.leagueoffans.org/2012/04/06/green-bay-packers-own...

helloworldon Mylan's EpiPen profit was 60% higher than what the CEO told Congress

The profit CEO Heather Bresch told Congress about was calculated after factoring in the 37.5% U.S. tax rate, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission first reported by the Wall Street Journal. That tax rate is more than five times the overall tax rate the company actually paid last year and is much higher than its actual U.S. tax rate, which tax specialists have pegged at close to zero.

Is Bresch now at risk of prosecution for making false or misleading statements in her Congressional testimony?[1]

[1] http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/07/what-happens-if-you-lie-to-co...

helloworldon Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment

This part surprised me:

Many food shoppers have difficulty comprehending the scale and complexity facing modern farmers, especially those who compete in a global marketplace. For example, the median lettuce field is managed by a farmer who has 1,373 football fields of that plant to oversee.

helloworldon What I Learned from a Stroke at 26: Make Time to Untangle

ACT sounds interesting. This is from an Amazon interview with its creator, Steven Hayes, who's written a book:

We get a lot of training in how to develop and use our minds, but we get very little training in how to step out of the mental chatter when that is needed.... Learning how to get out of your mind and into your life when you need to do that is an essential skill in the modern world.[1]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Get-Your-Mind-Into-Life-ebook/dp/B005...

helloworldon [dead]

After watching this, words fail. Considering that the man's wife is shouting that he has no gun, why do the police officers shoot him?

helloworldon Sorry, Employers: You're Not Getting My Salary History

Instead of asking for a prospective employee's salary history, I think that an ethical employer should disclose the anticipated salary range for a position, and confirm that it would be acceptable if an offer were to result from the interview process. Any other approach is about creating a negotiating advantage for the employer.

helloworldon Is Running Good or Bad for Your Health?

This review is based on two observational studies that began in the 1980s -- long after health-conscious people had heard the official wisdom that saturated fat causes heart disease. So, although the researchers try hard to control for individual differences such as exercise level, it's very possible that the people who ate the least saturated fat are also the ones who engaged in all sorts of other health-promoting activities, which were not controlled for. Epidemiologists call this the "healthy user" bias.

All that said, though, I agree that the impact of saturated fat on health is hardly clear-cut. As someone else in the comments mentioned, the best advice is probably the oldest: Moderation in all things -- including moderation.

helloworldon Is Running Good or Bad for Your Health?

Saturated fats are not associated with all cause mortality, CVD, CHD, ischemic stroke, or type 2 diabetes.... [1]

The current available evidence found no significant difference in all-cause mortality or CHD mortality, resulting from the dietary fat interventions. [2]

[1] Intake of saturated and trans unsaturated fatty acids and risk of all cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. BMJ. 2015 Aug 11;351:h3978. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3978. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26268692

[2] Evidence from randomised controlled trials does not support current dietary fat guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Open Heart. 2016 Aug 8;3(2):e000409. doi: 10.1136/openhrt-2016-000409. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27547428

helloworldon WADA Confirms Attack by Russian Cyber Espionage Group

Sadly, I conclude that devices connected to the Internet are irremediably insecure. Air-gap it or lose it, I guess.

helloworldon [dead]

I hesitated to post this, because I don't want to lend any support to spurious rumors about Hillary Clinton's health. But if this incident is related to a bona fide medical issue, it might be an important development in what's been a very unusual campaign.

helloworldon Apple takes on Google and Microsoft with iWorks real-time collaboration

Tim Cook has been the CEO of Apple for five years. Based on the executive team he has in place, it would appear that diversity hasn't been a priority for him.

helloworldon Apple takes on Google and Microsoft with iWorks real-time collaboration

Maybe because 16 of the 19 top Apple executives are white men. (Women lead retail, HR, and public policy.)

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/

Aren't there sufficiently talented women -- and also people of Hispanic and Asian ancestry -- who could serve as leaders and role models at Apple?

helloworldon How to Tell a Mother Her Child Is Dead

Security is already outside the room and when they hear the first loud noise they will know to come in. No, you will not have to tell them. They know about the family room in the emergency department in summer in North Philadelphia.

What a heartbreaking essay. And how tragic that death by gun violence is apparently routine in North Philadelphia.

helloworldon Photo of Football Star Sitting with Boy Eating Alone at School Charms Internet

This reminds me of a quote from Aesop: "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

helloworldon Joe Sutter, who guided creation of the Boeing 747, has died

So much happened in aviation between the Wright Flyer's first flight in 1903 and the 747's in 1969. Since then, at least from a passenger experience viewpoint, relatively little has changed.

Is that because most new technologies eventually reach plateaus? Or have unique factors -- like environmental concerns about supersonic travel -- held back progress in aviation?

helloworldon Microsoft cuts 3,000 jobs in smartphone division, sales

I hadn't noticed how disastrous Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia turned out to be. According to this article, along with the $7.1 billion purchase price, which has been written off entirely, 30,500 people have lost their jobs.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but it's hard to believe that Nokia would have done worse if it had remained independent.

helloworldon Tom Wolfe tries to take down Darwin and Chomsky

BTW, here's a great recent profile of Wolfe, written by Michael Lewis:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/10/how-tom-wolfe-beca...

helloworldon Tom Wolfe tries to take down Darwin and Chomsky

This review didn't grab me -- it seems ad hominem, attacking the messenger as much as the message -- but what does impress me is that Tom Wolfe is 85 years old! At this point in his life, it's awesome that he's taken on a project of such intellectual depth.