Hacker News Reader

sweon I Lived Like a Baller for a Month in Venezuela on Just £75 (2015)

It can happen anywhere there's fiat currency and long supply lines.

sweon Why smart people are better off with fewer friends

Depends on the problem. If the general human consensus believes the sun revolves around the earth, you're going to have a hard time working with multiple minds. Problems which require radical shifts in ideology are more than likely going to be tackled alone. It would come down to the maximum power principle. You would waste a significant amount of energy pulling someone psychologically one step in your direction, whereas independently, you could be three steps closer to proving your thesis. Not to mention, social cohesion, or whatever you want to call it, encourages group think and naturally ostracises outsiders as a primitive form of bonding or fitting in with one another.

Really hard problems fight monocultures of 'obvious truth' in the bonds of multiple minds.

sweon Newly discovered bacteria can eat plastic bottles

Horizontal gene transfer is one of the issues brought up by researchers who discovered the plastic eating fungus Pestalotiopsis Microspora

sweon Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply

Losing the pollinators is part of an unravelling ecosystem. If you think you're safe in your bubble, you won't be.

sweon Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply

We'll pollinate by hand:

https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/5193-De...

sweon Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply

> Long term, it is the most economically sustainable business from the perspective of the business owner

That's true, but not for the reasons stated. Once the population bubble bursts, the majority of human beings will become farmers if they want to survive. The negative stigma associated with farming for a living will quickly evaporate.

sweon Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply

No, what we need is a decentralized food system. You really should be eating food indigenous to the region in which you live.

sweon Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply

According to historian Dr. Joseph Tainter's book 'The Collapse of Complex Societies', if you exclude isolated groups such as tribes, there have been 23 distinct civilizations throughout the course of human history and 22 have failed. Hypercomplexity and specialization tend to be common characteristics, as well as, misuse of resources.

sweon Decline of Species That Pollinate Poses a Threat to Global Food Supply

This really should be no surprise. Mainstream economics practices that the environment is a subset of the economy and not the other way around.

"Sure, I can live without fresh water and clean air, but a market? I need a market." /s

sweon On the growing, intentional uselessness of Google search results

Love to see where you found that 99% figure

sweon On the growing, intentional uselessness of Google search results

Search, or the quest for knowledge, is not going to be displaced or marginalized. If a small company builds true AI, Google is done.

sweon Is Organic More Nutritious? New Study Adds to the Evidence

kilocalorie

sweon Is Organic More Nutritious? New Study Adds to the Evidence

You still get bugs inside

sweon Is Organic More Nutritious? New Study Adds to the Evidence

Numbers vary, but somewhere between 7-12 calories of hydrocarbon energy in every 1 calorie of food. That's precooked; afterwards it can be 25 or more.

The entire food system is heavily dependent on hydrocarbon energy and long supply lines.

Take oil and natural gas away and billions of people would starve to death.

sweon AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

"There is evidence for it"

I would be super interested to see some evidence. Any peer reviewed journals would be fine

sweon The IPv6 Numeric IP Format Is a Usability Problem

Wow!