Hacker News Reader

murphyslabon Nobel Prize Chemistry 2023

It depends a lot on what kind of chemistry lab one works in. Having worked at in fluorescence microscopy in my MSc, then at Canada's Nanotechnology Research Centre & at Xerox's Research Centre in Mississauga, and later working with liquid crystals at TU Eindhoven I've had the joy of seeing some incredible colour in the lab. There's so much information which can be encoded spectroscopically, which is one reason why nanoparticles make for such useful probes.

murphyslabon Nobel Prize Chemistry 2023

Nice seeing them have what appear to be actual solutions of quantum dots in volumetric flasks, right on the panel's table.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpph2cHx6gk&ab_channel=Nobel...

murphyslabon A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

I can see encouraging authors to remove "zombie citations", but that should be rare nowadays, as many bibliographic databases will automatically flag retracted articles now, thanks to integration with the Retraction Watch database.

murphyslabon A journey into the shaken baby syndrome/abusive head trauma controversy

It's interesting the instance cited about authors of a scientific paper being compelled to remove a reference because a peer reviewer alleged that the researcher behind it is "a lousy and dishonest researcher". What's more interesting is that PLOS ONE repeated the allegation. I am curious whether there is a case for defamation for the publication of such an allegation.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/peerReview?id=10.1...

I've certainly had peer reviewers trying to get me to cite their own papers in my articles, however I've never seen an instance where a peer reviewer alleged that an article I've cited was by someone disreputable.

murphyslabon The iNaturalist Geomodel

I'm pretty excited about this.

Until yesterday, iNaturalist, a platform for recording and identifying observations of organisms & citizen science, used a "Seen Nearby" rubric when selecting which predictions from its computer vision to show to a user:

> What does "Seen Nearby" mean?

> The “Seen Nearby” label on the computer vision suggestions indicates that there is a Research Grade observation, or an observation that would be research grade if it wasn't captive, of that taxon that is:

> - within nine 1-degree grid cells in around the observation's coordinates and

> - observed around that time of year (in a three calendar month range, in any year).

https://web.archive.org/web/20230919033734/https://www.inatu...

I'd discussed how it then worked in a thread seven days ago with another user who was using the CV model separately from iNaturalist: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37515996

Prediction maps for all of the species included are available on the iNaturalist website using the associated taxon number,

e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/geo_model/63311/explain

where 63311 = Sagebrush Mariposa Lily Calochortus macrocarpus)

cf. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/63311-Calochortus-macrocarp...

The update changed this to a model which tries to use the often sparse data to estimate where a given species (or taxon) is expected to be observed, going beyond simply having adjacent observations. The announcement & ensuing discussion in the comments does a thorough job of explaining how this works. There are also two relevant papers posted to arXiv by iNaturalist's research collaborators that explain how the new model works:

Spatial Implicit Neural Representations for Global-Scale Species Mapping (2023) https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.02564

Presence-Only Geographical Priors for Fine-Grained Image Classification (2019) https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.05272

murphyslabon The End of Scantron Tests

> Soon, however, teachers and government officials sought ways to evaluate rapidly increasing numbers of students. In 1900, roughly 10 percent of teens attended high school; by 1940, some 70 percent did.

It reminds me of looking at a 1930s census, not long ago, while compiling a family history. Some of the adults on a rural farm were listed as having completed "4th grade". It's rather difficult to imagine a world where that was the norm and to compare how different our world now must be, when nearly everyone has completed high school.

murphyslabon New treatments give an example of how treating one patient can benefit others

There's a lot of literature in medicine of how often one small subset of patients consumes a disproportionate level of healthcare resources, i.e. the Pareto principle. It's fantastic seeing just how much providing effective treatment for that small subset offers drastic benefits to everyone else. For liver transplants, it's a very 1-to-1 situation, but for other resources such as hospital beds, the ripples probably go much farther.

murphyslabon Google sued for negligence after man died following map directions

That's possible, however I'm not changing the address, I'm changing the position of the marker on the map by 70 metres. Google regularly tweaks marker coordinates, in order to provide better driving directions, without changing the address.

Additionally, the wrong location, where the marker has reverted to, does not correspond to a building structure, rather it's in the middle of a greenspace. I've illustrated it here:

https://i.imgur.com/kvYePAZ.png

All of the other markers I've included in the diagram match what is shown on Google Maps; they are correctly positioned at the structure where the organization is located. One oddity of the location is that it is like a campus, hence all of the buildings share the same street address, but with different unit numbers (e.g. 9999 Hacker Road #5 and 9999 Hacker Road #8).

murphyslabon Google sued for negligence after man died following map directions

Google Maps should change the way that edits work. My experience suggests the current approach is to require independent verification, via volunteers, of too many user edits.

If I were to update the hours of a local business with a photo, that gets addressed within a couple hours, since the photo offers a form of verification. But to correct the location of a feature often takes far longer.

A pharmacy in my community had its location wrongly recorded in Google Maps, leading to people trying to drive through a very wrong route. The pharmacists himself had tried and couldn't change his business' location. I made the edit (as a "level 7 guide" for what it's worth) and even then it required another 50 days before it was verified. In that case, it was likely awaiting another user to verify.

I checked the map today while thinking about it: Ten months later, the marker has been moved back, to the incorrect location!

I fixed the pharmacy location because Google Maps was hurting my pharmacist, a good guy with a small business that I like. But to go out of my way to verify other edits, I'm not quite sure what the motivation is. Google should pay users -- offer some small remuneration -- for correct edits and for verification of edits. They already offer similar payment for information in other contexts: offering Google Play credits with their Google Rewards survey platform. Why not employ that on Google Maps, which is earning them around $5B/year?

Another option might be to trust (then verify) for users who have a history of valid edits.

murphyslabon iNaturalist strikes out on its own

I don't use Seek, but the iNaturalist website filters computer vision matches using a "Seen Nearby" feature:

> - within nine 1-degree grid cells in around the observation's coordinates and

> - observed around that time of year (in a three calendar month range, in any year).

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#computer-vision

For how the model was trained, it's fairly well documented on the blog, including different platforms used as well as changes in training techniques. Previously the model was updated twice per year, as it required several months to train. For the past year they've been operating on a transfer learning method, so the model is trained on the images then updated, roughly once each month, to reflect changes in taxa. The v2.0 model was trained on 60,000 taxa and 30 million photos. There are far more taxa on iNaturalist, however there is a threshold of ~100 observations before a new species is included in the model.

https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/83370-a-new-computer-vision...

https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/75633-a-new-computer-vision...

murphyslabon The Dendera Dating Controversy

I suspect it is a paraphrase of the Nature (journal portfolio) "research ethics guidance" published in 2022. That guidance claims an ethical imperative to avoid "indirect" causation of "harm". Here is a quote from the editorial announcing the update:

> Harms can also arise indirectly, as a result of the publication of a research project or a piece of scholarly communication – for instance, stigmatization of a vulnerable human group or potential use of the results of research for unintended purposes (e.g., public policies that undermine human rights or misuse of information to threaten public health). -- Nature Human Behaviour

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-022-01443-2

Hence, according to the publishers of the Nature journal portfolio, if a finding could be used to support a policy which would cause a negative effect for some "vulnerable human group", or which might cause them to be subject to further stigmatization, then there is a moral imperative to not undertake or to not publish that scientific research.

If you are interested in those who have critiqued the editorial and the new guidance, I'd refer you to this post at Heterodox STEM:

https://hxstem.substack.com/p/ideological-mandates-in-publis...

Alternatively, the editorial staff at Nature offer their endorsement of their own policy here:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01607-0

murphyslabon The Absence of Data Privacy Law Is a National Security Threat

I am curious to know the degree to which US political parties' self-interest, in data collection and aggregation, is responsible for the lack of creating data privacy laws. That kind of incentive leeches away my hope that the US will improve the legal landscape for data privacy.

In Canada, federal political parties conveniently scoped their data operations outside of federal privacy legislation when it was written. Then, when provincial legislation threatened those parties' data collection operations, the federal parties subtly changed federal law in order to claim that federal political parties' data collection was exclusively under federal jurisdiction:

> The amended petition from the Liberal Party argues that the passage of C-47 “expressly confirmed Parliament's intent” that the collection and use of personal information by the federal parties “be governed exclusively by federal law.”

https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/09/08/federal-parties-a...

The question of whether that kind of jurisdictional excision can be performed is now before our courts.

murphyslabon Show HN: Markwhen: Markdown for Timelines

Suggestion:

Zoom/Magnify feature doesn't feel intuitive with the zoom being centred on the middle of the layout and expanding both to the left and the right. It acts like a vecgtor image editor, rather than like a timeline which tends to have an explicit start point. That behaviour makes it difficult to interact with.

My preference would be to have it start at an anchor somewhere near the left/early edge of the page, then while zooming, to only expand toward the right, pushing the future further away to the right.

Overall really well done!

murphyslabon Ban on recording without consent is unconstitutional, US court rules

> All this is to say that Steve Huffman might not be deliberately lying in this instance.

Huffman has had 26+ days to correct the record. He has done nothing to that end. He made a "potentially career-ending" allegation, which hurt the reputation of the developer of Apollo, Christian Selig.

June 8th: Selig released his side of the story, along with messages which were sent to him from a Reddit employee as well as from moderators engaged in a subsequent call with Reddit:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230608172250/https://old.reddi...

June 9th (a full 24 hours later): Huffman had the facts, including the recording, which confirmed their mutual understanding. Huffman could have revised his stance there and then. Instead, Huffman doubled down, effectively reiterating the lie through his scare-quote and instead criticized Selig for acting publicly to defend his reputation against Reddit's internal and external slander:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230616033947/https://old.reddi...

Huffman is the CEO of the Reddit platform and nothing is stopping him from apologizing for making a potentially "potentially career-ending lie" against the developer of Apollo, Christian Selig. He hasn't made a peep on the platform since June 9th.

If it wasn't deliberate, then he's had nearly a month to speak up for the truth. At some point, refusing to correct the record, a lie does become deliberate.

---

Here's TechCrunch's reporting on the situation, if you prefer to hear it from a journalist:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/09/reddit-ceo-doubles-down-on...

murphyslabon Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?

https://murphyslab.ca/notes/

Not a lot there right now. When I rehosted from WordPress to Hugo (after HostPapa started jacking up prices), I pulled a number of posts. Since I've been on hiatus from adding material to my blog. But, now that Reddit and Twitter have really soured, I'm leaning toward making it the one place where share thoughts.

murphyslabon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2023)

Location: Vancouver region, Canada

Remote: Open to the possibility

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: PhD in materials chemistry, block copolymers, liquid crystals, lithography, self-assembly. Knowledge of multiple nanotechnology tools and skills including focus on metrology with SEM, TEM, ellipsometry. Scientific image analysis & Python.

Résumé/CV: emailed on request

Email: my HN username at Gmail

murphyslabon I shouldn’t have to accept being in deepfake porn

By virtue of appearing to be a photograph. The medium itself is a message (cf. Marshall McLuhan). An image which appears to be a photograph conveys a meaning to the viewer that "this depicts a real event", whereas if I draw a picture, even if it is of something plausible but which as never happened, there isn't a perception that the image is being presented as evidence of an event which has taken place. If we know that enough people will draw such an inference from a statement, it can and should be treated as potentially libelous.

murphyslabon Now Reddit are coming for the individual personal subreddits

> If they don't want private subs, then convert them to public and turn that feature off.

I can understand the sentiment, however users of Reddit employ private subreddits for a variety of reasons. Top of the list is in order to facilitate safe discussions, secure from prying eyes. For Reddit Inc it is a benefit, since it encourages moderator groups and communities to remain within the platform. e.g.

> r/ArmyofScience

> A private community for the comment moderators of /r/science to organize and discussion moderation of the subreddit.

If such private communities were forced open, it would require moderator groups, or those other private communities, to join the exodus to other platforms.

There are also some more personal collections on the site, without a doubt. Switching those to public would constitute a huge violation the trust which users have placed in Reddit and only further erode the company's image within communities that make their home on the site as well as with the public at large.

Lastly, there are over 3 million subreddits in existence [0], so even changing this manually would be a sizeable task.

[0] https://www.businessdit.com/how-many-subreddits-are-there/

murphyslabon Show HN: Chronological List of All the James Webb Telescope Discoveries

> Over 26,000 astronomers have reviewed this telescope

The text on that little ad banner confused me for a moment. Then I just laughed.

But as you probably guessed, the site doesn't do more than catalogue and republish NASA press releases as an excuse to sell stuff.

murphyslabon The concurrence of three climatic events

The author is using this as a unit of thermal energy being absorbed, not as a measure of deaths:

> As of March, 2023, on an annualized basis, the EEI was 1.61 Watts per square meter. That might not sound like a lot, but on a global basis it is about equal to the energy released from 13 Hiroshima sized nuclear bombs exploding every second.

That "1.61 Watts per square meter" figure does sound low to someone who thinks in terms of 60 Watt light bulbs. Thinking of it on the scale of nuclear bombs being dropped may give people pause to reflect on the magnitude of the rate of energy being absorbed.

murphyslabon Ten Thousand Ways to Use Chopsticks

One piece of analysis missing from Macrosticks is how hand size and shape is influencing individuals' preferred hold. The author seems to have an underlying thesis that it's all about how the holder learned, but I don't believe it.

I learned at ~8 and my "ah ha!" moment came when I realized that it was easier to hold chopsticks with my left hand despite writing right handed. Now I can do it well enough with both hands.

My hold is somewhat like the "right hand rule" grip, although the lower chopstick fits into the groove of my thumb unlike the reference photos. And while I've tried other grips — as demonstrated to me by Asian friends — they've never "fit" with my relatively large hands.

murphyslabon Reddit Data API Update: Changes to Pushshift Access

I've been using RIF for probably 10 years. I'd sooner browse Old Reddit on mobile than use the official app. Reddit Inc has been trying to emulate various trends, constantly running after leaders like TikTok. It feels chaotic and bloated. But those older unofficial apps have remained focused on the core, historic functionality of Reddit.

murphyslabon Reddit Data API Update: Changes to Pushshift Access

It's been frustrating to read how Reddit's API changes are affecting the unofficial mobile apps for Reddit. Seriously has me questioning whether I want to continue using the platform at all. The developer for Apollo posted a lengthy thread 12 days ago about how this is going to affect those apps:

https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/12ram0f/had_a_fe...

As many users have noted, this is in many ways a betrayal, of both users and developers, since these other apps were the first to provide mobile functionality for Reddit.

murphyslabon Saving 4M books from landfill

Preservation is not a _public_ library's primary mission. However public libraries are a relatively new development. National libraries and many private libraries do exist to with the primary purpose of preserving information.

cf https://www.britannica.com/topic/library/School-libraries

murphyslabon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (March 2023)

Location: Vancouver region, Canada

Remote: Open to the possibility

Willing to relocate: Yes

Technologies: PhD in Materials chemistry. Knowledge of multiple nanotechnology tools and skills. Scientific image analysis & Python.

Résumé/CV: emailed on request

Email: my HN username at Gmail

murphyslabon How to Start Your Blog in 2023

"Free domain privacy, forever", in GoDaddy's wording, seems fairly standard now. But really it's a spin: Since 2018, domain privacy is required by EU's GDPR in many instances. But pre-GDPR it was frequently an add-on, demanding additional payment. IIRC, there are some domains for which it is not available.

CA domains have had a privacy default for individuals since 2008. As someone who's received personal threats as a result of WHOIS info, I'd rather stick with the more certain option.

murphyslabon How to Start Your Blog in 2023

CIRA's privacy policy is one of the reasons why I've stayed with .ca for my digital presence:

> The registrant name and administrative and technical contact information of non-individual registrants, such as corporations, is displayed by default. The registrant name and administrative and technical contact information of individuals, such as Canadian citizens or permanent residents is not displayed in WHOIS per the CIRA Privacy Policy. Generally non-individuals are public and individuals are private.

https://www.cira.ca/ca-domains/whois

murphyslabon Google Workspace increasing prices from April 11, 2023

No, you seem to be confusing "vendor lock-in" with "monopoly". The above isn't what is meant by "vendor lock-in". Here's a good explanation by Cloudflare:

> Vendor lock-in refers to a situation where the cost of switching to a different vendor is so high that the customer is essentially stuck with the original vendor. Because of financial pressures, an insufficient workforce, or the need to avoid interruptions to business operations, the customer is "locked in" to what may be an inferior product or service.

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cloud/what-is-vendor-loc...

A practical example of vendor lock-in is an elderly aunt with mine who has an email address from her ISP. She isn't "contractually obligated" to continue using that email, nor the ISP. The ISP certainly doesn't have a monopoly on email. But the effort to switch from an email that she's been using for 15 years is very high for someone with weak tech skills. I'm probably in a similar situation with Gmail, as it's the primary contact by which most people know me. I can't take my Gmail address and port it; I have to create a new email and get people to update their address books.

murphyslabon Let Teenagers Sleep

The issue has existed since well before widespread availability of smartphones and cheap laptops.

Here's a clinical review from 2003 (largely citing studies from the late 1990s) where the same issues were already clear:

http://web.mit.edu/writing/2010/July/Wolfson%26Carskadon2003...

One major part of the problem is that teens tend to go to bed at the same time regardless of when school starts the next day. Hence those students in school districts with earlier start times simply get less sleep, resulting in more irregular sleep schedules. In turn, that leads to worse cognitive performance.

murphyslabon Homebrew Social Networking

Appreciate the explanation! Thank you for taking the time.