Hacker News Reader

the_economiston People are pooping more than ever on the streets of San Francisco

The city of San Francisco provides homeless people with $520/month in cash, via an ATM card that refills on the 1st of the month.

They give away $24 million a year in cash.

It's a genuinely good idea to provide assistance to the homeless, but it should be in the form of Care Not Cash and given away equally across the state. Otherwise, you are funding a drug demand epidemic and likely creating incentives for people with drug problems from around the Bay Area to move here for the cash.

I filed a FOIA with the city to get data on the total cash given away.

http://www.disclosures.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CAAP-d...

http://www.disclosures.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CAPI-d...

the_economiston South Korea now recycles 95% of its food waste

Before Haber–Bosch, everyone recycled 100% of their food waste.

the_economiston H-1B Employer Data Hub

Approval rates have taken a serious hit: https://twitter.com/typesfaster/status/1112836630589534208

the_economiston In an Oil Boom Town, Even a Barber Can Make $180k

Some estimates say that 90% of earth's oil is in shale rock.

the_economiston AirPods with Wireless Charging Case

They may have quietly made Bluetooth improvements but not mentioned it, in the same way you won't see Apple acknowledge fixing the constant problems with their keyboard on descriptions of their newer Macbook pros.

the_economiston Why American Construction Costs Are So High

This is not a company account.

the_economiston Why American Construction Costs Are So High

https://www.buildzoom.com/blog/whats-up-with-construction-co...

Real construction costs are 50% higher than they were in the 1950s, according to our analysis.

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2018)

BuildZoom (YC W13) | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

New sales/ops role!

https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/e4e758b4-88f2-4885-bf10-4441...

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2018)

BuildZoom (YC W13) | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

BuildZoom simplifies the process of selecting a general contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, we bring new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry.

To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/buildzoom

Our open positions:

* Lead Software Engineer, Data Platform: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/5d98e8d6-b8be-4871-a1de-109a...

* Senior Software Engineer, Back End: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/ec706cb2-dd89-4e57-8815-1dd7...

* Software Engineer (New College Grad - 2019): https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/7e5403c6-1bcf-497f-a360-efcd...

* Software Engineer, Data: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/03ea7dc4-0156-461e-bcc1-7613...

* Software Engineer, Full Stack: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/de320f7b-65b9-492a-b1fe-bb51...

* Software Engineering Intern (Fall '18): https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/4b6958f3-b039-40df-ba45-395f...

the_economiston NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

One possibility is paying for it from their endowment.

NYU's endowment is $4.1 billion. They make 7.5%/year on that according to this report: https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/investmentOffice/documen...

That's $300 million/year in growth, not counting donations.

Their medical school apparently has 679 students. At $50k/year each, that's $34 million a year. Or approximately 10% of the appreciation in their endowment.

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2018)

Our engineering team at BuildZoom is doing some really exciting things - as we're a data company at heart.

We're ingesting vast volumes of construction and real estate data to gain deep insight into the construction marketplace. Our bleeding edge data ingestion framework has helped us accumulate one of the most complete and timely data sets in the industry, which we're leveraging to solve real world problems.

Apply here: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom

Or email resume and/or Linkedin profile to: careers@buildzoom.com

the_economiston San Francisco's zoning makes it illegal to build apartments in 73.5% of the city

San Francisco's water comes from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetch_Hetchy.

California has plenty of water for the humans. Whether we have enough for the current scale of industrial farming into the future is uncertain.

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2018)

BuildZoom (YC W13) | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

BuildZoom simplifies the process of selecting a general contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, we bring new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry.

To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/buildzoom

Here are our open roles:

- Backend Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/ec706cb2-dd89-4e57-8815-1dd7...

- Full-Stack Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/de320f7b-65b9-492a-b1fe-bb51...

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2018)

BuildZoom | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

BuildZoom simplifies the process of selecting a general contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, we bring new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry.

To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/buildzoom

Here are our open roles:

- Lead Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/5d98e8d6-b8be-4871-a1de-109a...

- Full Stack Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/de320f7b-65b9-492a-b1fe-bb51...

the_economiston Boeing 747s are back in demand as workhorses of global shipping

That comment was posted by Flexport's CEO!

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2018)

BuildZoom | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

BuildZoom simplifies the process of selecting a general contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, we bring new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry.

To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/buildzoom

Here are our open roles:

- Data Engineer (Manila): https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/03ea7dc4-0156-461e-bcc1-7613...

- Lead Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/5d98e8d6-b8be-4871-a1de-109a...

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2018)

BuildZoom | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

BuildZoom simplifies the process of selecting a general contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, we bring new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry.

To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/buildzoom

Here are our open roles:

- Data Engineer (Manila): https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/03ea7dc4-0156-461e-bcc1-7613...

- Director of Data Engineering: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/5d98e8d6-b8be-4871-a1de-109a...

- Full-stack Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/de320f7b-65b9-492a-b1fe-bb51...

the_economiston Facebook’s Virtual Assistant M Is Dead

Fin is a really great service. Made several things in my life much easier.

the_economiston Beginner's guide to longevity research

This is an awesome write-up.

Regarding the experiment on monkeys that showed calorie restriction led to a longer life, there is one key point that I think damages the conclussion. Both groups of monkeys were fed an extremely unhealthy diet that was very high in sugar. So the conclusion would be that eating fewer unhealthy calories leads to a longer life, not that calorie restriction in itself does.

the_economiston Ask HN: Who is hiring? (January 2018)

BuildZoom | San Francisco, CA | Full-Time, Onsite Only | https://www.buildzoom.com

BuildZoom simplifies the process of selecting a general contractor and improving the outcomes of remodeling and construction projects. By gathering and analyzing information on 3.5 million licensed contractors and 100 million improvement projects, we bring new levels of transparency and accountability to a notoriously difficult industry.

To learn more about who we are, our engineering culture, and whether this is the right place for you, read our Key Values profile: https://www.keyvalues.com/buildzoom

Here are our open roles:

- Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineer - Construction Industry: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/75ed4149-a813-4183-9699-ccc7...

- Data Engineering Lead or Manager: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/5d98e8d6-b8be-4871-a1de-109a...

- Full-stack Engineer: https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/de320f7b-65b9-492a-b1fe-bb51...

- Software Engineering Intern (Winter 2018): https://jobs.lever.co/buildzoom/4b6958f3-b039-40df-ba45-395f...

the_economiston macOS High Sierra: Anyone can login as “root” with empty password

I was just able to reproduce it in 10.13.1. I had to click submit twice.

the_economiston The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

I think I had a slightly stiff neck after 9 hours of sleeping, then jumping into the cold water made me jerk unnaturally, giving me neck spasms.

the_economiston The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

I've been taking cold showers for 3-4 months, but recently had to quit because I hurt my neck so badly in the shower.

the_economiston Postmates laid off all its city managers yesterday

I'm surprised by the complaints about Postmates in this thread. I use it 1-2 times/week for various pickup tasks (food, items from walgreens, items from safeway), and I'm always pleased with the service / speed.

the_economiston Paul Buchheit on Lessons Learned from Investing in 200 Startups

Potential is defined pretty loosely as "1/200 chance of being worth 10 bil plus" based on their track record so far.

You might be able to do that if you had enough amazing people / companies offering you equity.

the_economiston Sprig is shutting down

I used Sunfare (www.sunfare.com) in Scottsdale, Arizona for almost 5 years before I moved to San Francisco. It's a similar model to all of these Bay Area restaurant + delivery startups, but they have never expanded outside of LA / AZ, never raised venture capital, and somehow manage to stay in business and turn a profit!

I love and miss them!

the_economiston What You Can Do About Climate Change

I haven't seen many politicians campaigning for nuclear power, and you can't deal with CO2 emissions without that (base load problem, etc), so that's pretty hard to do.

the_economiston Support Grows for a Seattle to Vancouver Bullet Train

Don't forget about property taxes. It's extraordinarily expensive to buy a home in most parts of California.

If the average person buys a home that costs 3x their income, and property taxes are around 1%, that's an extra 3% added to your tax bill.

the_economiston Alphabet's Waymo Alleges Uber Stole Self-Driving Secrets

I imagine that throughout human history this has been the case far often than not.

the_economiston U.S. life expectancy will soon be on par with Mexico’s and Croatia’s

9.3 is 31% higher than 7.1. That's a pretty significant increase. I wouldn't call that "slightly higher"

Also, sugar is a standard part of the American diet. But Americans are obese. Here is at least one expert who thinks sugar is the problem: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2009/06/8187/obesity-and-metabolic...