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illegal_in_caon Al Gore: 'The rich have subverted all reason'

I can't help but think the obvious solution here is the correct one: start talking politics with people IN PERSON.

The signal to noise ratio around my kitchen table is a lot higher than on reddit (or even HN), and there are a lot fewer trolls.

We used to say "Never trust anyone you can't punch in the face."

illegal_in_caon Life Inside Hong Kong’s ‘Coffin Cubicles’

According to Index of Economic Freedom, Hong Kong has had the highest degree of economic freedom in the world since the inception of the Index in 1995.[0]

Hong Kong is the 32nd largest export economy in the world and the 12th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI).[1]

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate was 3.3% as of January 2017 according to Trading Economics.[2]

I think these metrics Trump the photos.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Hong_Kong [1] http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/hkg/ [2] http://www.worldstopexports.com/hong-kongs-top-10-exports/

illegal_in_caon The death of reading is threatening the soul

Hey thanks for correctly my typo when you quoted my.

illegal_in_caon The death of reading is threatening the soul

Very clever. Your response is only 168 characters. If you were trying to fit it in a tweet, however, you'd have to make it only this long :)

illegal_in_caon The death of reading is threatening the soul

There are several things happening here. I make a reference to a (rather famous?) book by Dale Carnegie, called How to win friends an influence people (that's the part after the asterisk).

I personally have no doubt that the above response was not written by bot. At this current moment in history -- mind this was written on 2017-07-25 (ISO, EDT, YMMV, HHGTTG, etc.) -- bot technology had not yet progressed to the stage that all HN comments were being persused by bots that knew that dead prez was written in lowercase, not uppercase.

I'd like to thank my bot for calling this to my attention so that I could answer personally. He only deploys on special occasions -- I doubt that any more than 0.4% of HN comments have been made by him.

<random quote> For we are the future, and we are the past. We are not the present -- this is not a gift. </random quote>

illegal_in_caon The death of reading is threatening the soul

Yup, that's how you read a book.

I would, however, cut the the paragraph as follows. Everything after is just an adversisement for the authors blog.

When evening comes, I return home and enter my study; on the threshold I take off my workday clothes, covered with mud and dirt, and put on the garments of court and palace. Fitted out appropriately, I step inside the venerable courts of the ancients, where, solicitously received by them, I nourish myself on that food that alone is mine and for which I was born; where I am unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives for their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me. And for four hours at a time I feel no boredom, I forget all my troubles, I do not dread poverty, and I am not terrified by death. I absorb myself into them completely. And because Dante says that no one understands anything unless he retains what he has understood, I have jotted down what I have profited from in their conversation and composed a short study..."

illegal_in_caon The death of reading is threatening the soul

My HN reading bot gives an 84% chance that your response was not written by a bot.

* Dictated, not read.

illegal_in_caon The death of reading is threatening the soul

The death of reading is threatening the soul

The death of thinking is threatening the soul.

• Bill Gates reads 50 books a year. • Mark Zuckerberg reads at least one book every two weeks. • Elon Musk grew up reading two books a day. • Mark Cuban reads for more than three hours every day. • Arthur Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot, reads two hours a day.

Yup. He didn't get those factoids from reading books. Mayhaps he received these gems of wisdom from:

When I read an online article from the Atlantic or the New Yorker, after a few paragraphs I glance over at the slide bar to judge the article’s length. My mind strays, and I find myself clicking on the sidebars and the underlined links. Soon I’m over at CNN.com reading Donald Trump’s latest tweets and details of the latest terrorist attack, or perhaps checking tomorrow’s weather.

I have 20,000 books to the author's 5,000. I'm not kidding. SQL database provided on demand. # books don't matter so much, it's what you do with them.

Reading is a proxy for thinking. Reading is only useful for those eureka moments (now called "a-ha moments" -- I guess it's shorter?) and for information gain. A walk in the woods, a pithy tweet, an encouter (a dialog -- a communiation -- a discussion -- an interaction -- an intercourse) with another human (fucking) being can also provide that eureka moment.

Stop reading, start learning. The best education is observation and participation. I'm all for books, but if they ain't teaching us about how to solve our own problems, then fuck them books. Get the knowledge, get the power. But be conscious, be aware, pay attention, did you miss it? You missed it. That's okay, I did when I wrote it, but if you hash the previous paragraph (algorithm you'll have to figure out), you'll get 2 bitcoins. I hear they might still be worth something. I read that in a book.

illegal_in_caon Show HN: Identify mushrooms from pictures

So I did a Google image search for "poisonous mushrooms" and it gave me a picture of "Galerina marginata" from Encyclopeadia Britannica[0].

According to the app: I think it's: Psilocybe zapotecorum Or perhaps Psilocybe subtropicalis , Psathyrella piluliformis , Psathyrella longistriata , or Kuehneromyces lignicola or something totally different!

Warning!!! Many mushrooms look alike and many are toxic! Champignouf makes a lot of mistakes! Do not eat mushrooms without being sure they are edible, you could die!

Thanks, but not helpful.

[0] https://www.britannica.com/list/7-of-the-worlds-most-poisono...

illegal_in_caon Amazon raised Prime Day prices, misleading consumers, says vendor

Agreed, NewEgg customer service is excellent. Easy returns. I've probably spent more in raw dollars at NewEgg than at Amazon, even though I've made maybe 10x as many Amazon purchases.

Edit: I have NewEgg Premier though, so I get free shipping on certain items and free RMAs. Cheaper than Amazon Prime. I'm always amazed NewEgg doesn't get more love around here.

illegal_in_caon Amazon raised Prime Day prices, misleading consumers, says vendor

Interesting. I also find myself picking up tech from NewEgg more often than Amazon. And I recently ordered most of the supplies for a cocktail party I was having at Walmart and Bed Bad and Beyond.

Amazon prices might beat local retail, but they are only sometimes competitive with other (often more specizlized) online retailers at this point.

Also, at least for me, shipping New Egg, Walmart and BBAB was faster than Amazon. I don't have Prime however.

illegal_in_caon Amazon raised Prime Day prices, misleading consumers, says vendor

Someone got shot by police? Not newsworthy, happens all the time.

Politicians taking bribes? Not newsworthy, been happening forever.

illegal_in_caon Amazon raised Prime Day prices, misleading consumers, says vendor

Er, is this not illegal in the USA? It is in Canada:

The Act prohibits false or misleading representations to the public as to the ordinary selling price of a product, in any form whatsoever. Ordinary selling price is validated in one of two ways: either a substantial volume of the product was sold at that price or higher, within a reasonable amount of time (volume test); or the product was offered for sale, in good faith, for a substantial period of time at that price or a higher price (time test).[0]

[0] http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/02...