Show HN: Health News – Hacker News for Health - <AUTHOR> https://news.nukleosome.com/ <comment><USER2> Tangential: I looked at other "Hacker News for X" sites and a lot of those links are now dead — [https://hn.algolia.com/?query="hacker%20news%20for"&sort=byP...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query="hacker%20news%20for"&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=1&dateRange=all&type=story)

Only lobsters and Product Hunt made it out alive from what I can tell. Says a lot about HN's moderation team, do the things that don't scale indeed.

<comment><USER3> I think HN teaches some great lessons. Building an online community has little to do with the technology of the platform. What matters the most is a strong robust set of founders, slow growth, and vigilent moderators. The founders will set the culture, and slow growth will help new comers to adapt. If you experience rapid growth you run the risk of new comers bringing in their own cultures without experiencing some of the "we don't do that here forces" thus diluting what makes the community special. Diversity of backgrounds is great, but once they're here... there are sets of expecations about behavior.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed although it may not apply for every community/community type. Looks like you listened to Masters of Scale recently? :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I appreciate the use of Discourse for this project, but unless the community is substantially similar to HN I don't see the value. A nontrivial number of links on HN deal with health (I'm thinking about recent stories related to dietary habits, sleep quality, and depression). And while these also appear elsewhere (Reddit, Twitter e.g), what I really value are the comments from this community that are well-moderated and on-point. Without the HN community the links on their own yield little value.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback!

I think we totally agree. Our sole goal, as stated here: [https://news.nukleosome.com/t/welcome-to-health- news/7](https://news.nukleosome.com/t/welcome-to-health-news/7) is to evolve this into a community that is as high quality as HN is. But HN wasn't HN on its day one. Speaking of which, here's a legendary post: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1) ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks neat.

If it's going to be like HN, then it needs the front page to have posts voted beyond a threshold. Right now it shows the latest, which is like going to the "new" section on HN and seeing all the submissions pouring in and waiting to appear on the front page. Maybe the front page showing top posts with recency could help. Health is another area where there's a lot of clickbait articles and spam. So controlling the quality of posts on the front page is very important.

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely so. Posts with more engagement will automatically climb up and that's on the "Top" section ([https://news.nukleosome.com/top](https://news.nukleosome.com/top)). We'll make this section the default as the community grows.

Thanks for the feedback!

<comment><USER6> Or top daily perhaps [https://news.nukleosome.com/top/daily](https://news.nukleosome.com/top/daily)

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason we're leaving it at 'Latest' for now is because that's where the 'Welcome' post is pinned, which is important for people to get a sense of what it's all about and what does it stand for (i.e. mission).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hacker news fits all 30 links on a single screen in my current configuration

Health news fits 14 links in the same amount of space.

Looks good, but increase in information density would be nice.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. We'll look into this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This seems to just be a standard Discourse forum with about 5 users.

What makes it "Hacker News for Health"? Have you implemented features that make it work more like HN than Discourse usually does?

<comment><AUTHOR> "[...] with about 5 [contributing] users." On the 'consuming' side, it's more than 20X of that.

In any case, the raison d'être of this is to maintain a quality discourse around human health and biology. Why it doesn't "seem" to have achieved that goal yet is simply because it's a brand new project.

Now the reason for _starting_ with Discouse is that, among its numerous capabilities, it actually does more than you'd expect when it comes to moderation. So it will help us maintain the quality as the community grows and we build our own tools.

Again, this is still in its infancy phase and even HN didn't look like HN on day or week one; [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1)

I guess good things don't get built up in a hurry :) especially good communities.

<comment><USER9> I'm a moderator on a Discourse instance and while it's not perfect, it's pretty dang good. That said, it's more oriented toward discussion than link- sharing. Do you plan to be more Reddit-like or forum-like? (Of course, there's overlap between those categories, but generally speaking.)

<comment><AUTHOR> It is quite good indeed. Where do you see it lacking? Perhaps this is a blindspot for admins.

The aim is to really have some good discussions from time to time. We definitely don't want to make it a place to just dump links into.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Hey Pierre

This is great! I shared it with my cardiologist cousin and he says its epic!

Did you use word press to build this?

<comment><USER4> No, it uses the open source Discourse forum. [https://www.discourse.org](https://www.discourse.org)

<comment><USER10> Epic! Thank you

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Just fyi: People with Health Anxiety, like me, please avoid this site :)

<comment><AUTHOR> You don't learn to ride a bike by avoiding bikes :)

Nonetheless, it's totally understandable.

<comment><USER11> Hahaha, trust me, I have health anxiety because I've ridden that bike way too many times and are currently undergoing through the process of riding it even further :/

<comment><AUTHOR> Since this seems to be more serious than expected, do you mind getting in touch? We want to see how we can help.

<comment><USER11> Yeah I have a rare illness called intracranial idiopathic hypertension (7 months of daily headaches so far, yikes) and more bad things going on health wise, and consequently, I've developed health anxiety.

Sure, just tell me how we could get in touch on HN privately ;) Also I'm from Spain so just fyi.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you please shoot an email to email@example.com? Just mention that you came from HN.

<comment><USER11> Okay, just sent you an email :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is there an RSS feed?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's an Easter Egg :) Just add .rss to any URL, except the main one of course.

E.g. [https://news.nukleosome.com/latest.rss](https://news.nukleosome.com/latest.rss)

<comment><USER12> Excelente!!! Thank you!!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Zero results for FHIR....

<comment><AUTHOR> Their last release was almost 3 months ago and this is still a bit of an infant :)

However, please feel free to submit any interesting stuff on that front!</comment></comment>


My first impressions about Go language - <AUTHOR> http://blog.balazspocze.me/2015/10/13/my-first-impressions-about-go-language/ <comment><AUTHOR> I am fascinated. Maybe that should be enough, but I guess I have to write a bit more here, because we are not in twitter.

I spent a few days to get know Go language, and now I am more than satisfied. I mean, all the project ideas which are floating in my head should be written in Go.</comment>


Notation as a Tool of Thought (1979) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.eecg.toronto.edu/~jzhu/csc326/readings/iverson.pdf <comment><USER2> This is one of my favorite papers and a bigger influence on my coding than anything else I've read. It's hard to really take advantage of these ideas without a language designed for that, but I have made an attempt to document a style guide for python that tries to get some of the feel at least: [https://github.com/fastai/fastai/blob/master/docs/style.md](https://github.com/fastai/fastai/blob/master/docs/style.md)

(NB: this approach to coding in Python won't suit most people, for many reasons - I wrote it because I had a lot of requests to document my approach, not because I want anyone else to do the same thing. But if you're curious about ways to lay out code that are rather different to PEP8, do check it out!)

</comment><comment><USER3> Nicholas Cooke in "Handbook of Musical Analysis" says something that has always influenced me very deeply:

> All notation is analysis

Obviously he's talking in the specific context of musical notation, but it seems true in other fields too. Choosing how to notate seems a very important analytical decision and certain forms of notation help or hinder analysis.

Feynman diagrams for example famously help to understand the maths underlying particle interactions.

Roman numerals (for a different example) make all kinds of arithmetic much harder than in Arabic notation.

<comment><USER4> > Roman numerals (for a different example) make all kinds of arithmetic much > harder than in Arabic notation.

Definitely not for simple addition or subtraction, the kind you're likely to do every day haggling over prices or counting things - roman numerals work visually!

What is I + II? You just write them together -> III

What is VVVV - V? Take just one V away -> VVV.

Knowing that IIIII = V or X = VV = IIIIIIIIII only allows you to express things as a shorthand. Also, some numerals allow for a subtraction index, so: X - I = IX (take I from X)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "The preceding sections have attempted to develop the thesis that the properties of executability and universality associated with programming languages can be combined, in a single language, with the well-known properties of mathematical notation which make it such an effective tool of thought" (378).

I've been working through "Seven Sketches in Composability" [1], posted here a few weeks ago, and thinking about how much math relies in diagrams which are somewhere between drawing and writing. In research meetings, I often see people reasoning with diagrams and mathematical notation. In the vein of this article, I wonder whether it would also be possible to formalize mathematical pictographs to the point where they could be computable--a not-strictly- textual programming language. iPython notebooks often toggle between symbolic expressions and their implementation in code.

One thing that might be missing is context. Diagrams are indexical (pointing to contextual meaning) even more than text, often illustrating a problem that has previously been defined. This feels to me like potentially-fruitful design problem.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16677395](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16677395)

<comment><USER6> Diagrams are a mainstay in architecture because they index multiple interreptations. This lends itself to creative work. The kind of computing done would be a weird one, having a stage that would generate multiple semantics for the same symbol and have to be executing on at least a couple of them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Looking further back to the days before cheap writing, I recently enjoyed reading this paper by Netz about the Ancient Greek use of counters as a tool of thought:

[http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph- iarticle_quer...](http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph- iarticle_query?db_key=AST&bibcode=2002HisSc..40..321N&letter=.&classic=YES&defaultprint=YES&whole_paper=YES&page=321&epage=321&send=Send+PDF&filetype=.pdf)

[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=86099607799623165...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=860996077996231654)

It explains how Greeks began using various sorts of counters or tokens for currency, policy making, court judgments, food distribution, recreation, etc., and demonstrates that Greek numeracy was quite varied and sophisticated while remaining concrete/tangible.

<comment><USER8> Hmm, in that sense an abacus was/is certainly a tool of thought, and a notation system at that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've been meaning to read this for some time. Thanks for reminding me. What else like this is there? In book form or paper form. Or video.

<comment><USER10> Me too; I have had the tab open months, or years at this point.

[http://prog21.dadgum.com/114.html](http://prog21.dadgum.com/114.html) \- "Papers from the lost culture of Array Languages" \- has links to this and a couple more interesting sounding things.

<comment><USER8> I've read and re-read "Notation as a Tool of Thought" ever since I came across it, one of my favorite papers.

Thank you for the link to this other paper, I can branch out to discover related works. Just found this one, I'll chew it well: "Language as an intellectual tool: From hieroglyphics to APL" [0].

[0] [http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86....](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.86.6185&rep=rep1&type=pdf)</comment></comment></comment>


Bitcaribe - <AUTHOR> https://bitcaribe.net/en/ <comment><AUTHOR> Bitcaribe is a fintech startup that develops products and services based on blockchain technology for the general public, merchants, and investors. All Bitcaribe financial tools differentiate themselves for their easiness of use and reliability.

With Bitcaribe, you can buy cryptocurrencies with credit card, debit card or ApplePay in less than a minute. Whether you are a beginner or advanced trader, make use of our cryptocurrency exchange to easily receive, send, and trade dozens of different cryptoassets.

For more information, visit buy.bitcaribe.net</comment>


Ep.68 Triton (Podcast June 2020) - <AUTHOR> https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/68/ <comment><AUTHOR> Full Transcript @ [https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/68/](https://darknetdiaries.com/transcript/68/)

A mysterious mechanical failure one fateful night in a Saudi Arabian chemical plant leads a cast of operational technology researchers down a strange path towards an uncommon, but grave, threat. In this episode, we hear how these researchers discovered this threat and tried to identify who was responsible for the malware behind it. We also consider how this kind of attack may pose a threat to human life wherever there are manufacturing or public infrastructure facilities around the world.

A big thanks to Julian Gutmanis, Naser Aldossary, Marina Krotofil, and Robert M. Lee for sharing their stories with us.

Sponsors This episode was sponsored by IT Pro TV. Get 65 hours of free training by visiting ITPro.tv/darknet. And use promo code DARKNET25.

This episode was sponsored by Linode. Linode supplies you with virtual servers. Visit linode.com/darknet and when signing up with a new account use code darknet2020 to get a $20 credit on your next project.

Sources [https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2019/04/triton-...](https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2019/04/triton-actor-ttp-profile-custom-attack-tools-detections.html) [https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2017/12/attacke...](https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2017/12/attackers-deploy-new-ics-attack-framework-triton.html) [https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2018/10/triton-...](https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2018/10/triton-attribution-russian-government-owned-lab-most-likely- built-tools.html) [https://dragos.com/wp- content/uploads/TRISIS-01.pdf](https://dragos.com/wp- content/uploads/TRISIS-01.pdf) Video S4 TRITON - Schneider Electric Analysis and Disclosure Video S4 TRITON - Mandiant Analysis at S4x18 Video S4 TRITON - Reverse Engineering the Tricon Controller by Dragos Video S4 TRITON - A Report From The Trenches Video - Safety Orientation video for the Chemical Plant Attribution Darknet Diaries is created by Jack Rhysider.

Episode artwork by odibagas.

Theme music created by Breakmaster Cylinder. Theme song available for listen and download at bandcamp. Or listen to it on Spotify.</comment>


Samsung Introduces Next Gen Tactical Mobility with Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition - <AUTHOR> https://news.samsung.com/us/galaxy-s20-tactical-edition-next-generation-tactical-mobility-enterprise/ <comment><AUTHOR> 'Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today introduced the Samsung Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition (TE), a mission-ready smartphone solution tailored to the unique needs of operators in the federal government and Department of Defense (DoD). With a highly customized software and feature set, the Galaxy S20 TE can operate seamlessly with a range of existing peripherals and supports the requirements of tactical and classified applications, especially those designed to help operators navigate complex terrain, expansive distances, and the potential loss of communication with command units. Galaxy S20 TE also introduces DualDAR architecture, which delivers two layers of data encryption based on the NSA standards to secure up to top-secret level data for classified missions.'

Original title was too long. It was:

Samsung Introduces Next Generation of Tactical Mobility with the Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition</comment>


Apple may delete your iTunes metadata - <AUTHOR> Recently, when opening iTunes after letting my Apple Music subscription lapse, I discovered my entire listening history and ~15 years playlist metadata had been automatically purged by Apple. Upon contacting Support I was informed this was the expected behavior and that my data was likely unrecoverable.<p>Fortunately I had a backup of the metadata. Do you? <comment><AUTHOR> Looking to create a backup of your Playlist Metadata? Here's how: [https://habd.as/post/backup-restore-macos- mojave/#itunes](https://habd.as/post/backup-restore-macos-mojave/#itunes)

</comment><comment><USER2> That's really bad. I never subscribed to Apple Music, still on iTunes Match - hope that doesn't happen when I let that lapse. Yet another reason not to subscribe to Apple Music.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, via Time Machine.

<comment><AUTHOR> Google or Duck the search phrase "backup mojave". On page one you'll see an article titled "How to Backup & Restore macOS Mojave". I suggest you start there if you wish to properly back-up your system.

For better data portability you may import your iTunes data into Spotify and use the free streamexport.com website to connect with your Spotify account and, from there, export CSV files representing your entire library.</comment></comment>


Global Technology Advancements - <AUTHOR> http://www.m1l.asia/articles/51 <comment><AUTHOR> The husband and wife go out to dinner to have quality time alone; as they sit across from each other, both of them on their phone.

And what shall we do with our cell phone next? Should we start a photo stream or send out a text? Our day is just not complete, it seems without sending or receiving the latest memes.

<comment><USER2> The confusion before tranquility ?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Octavio Paz Lozano, a Mexican poet and diplomat, pens technology as "not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality."

It's amazing to see how technology has wrapped itself around "man's little finger." With multitasking fast becoming the mantra of the day, it's tough to imagine being away from man's newest friend and companion: the cell phone. Carol Connell, a poet from poetrysoup.com, captures the pun of technological integration into our daily lives in his poem "Cell Phone Phenomenon."

It reads thus:

The husband and wife go out to dinner to have quality time alone; as they sit across from each other, both of them on their phone.

And what shall we do with our cell phone next? Should we start a photo stream or send out a text? Our day is just not complete, it seems without sending or receiving the latest memes.

The technology evolution of the past decade has been so hectic that it's tough to pen it down and to analyse the how the cornerstones of technology are deeply embedded into our daily lives. Experts believe that such integration was possible because of chain reactions fuelled by the innate needs of humanity to remain connected, irrespective of communication barriers. Like all other eras, the digital revolution was observed in both the software and the hardware side. As authorities viewed and documented human history, they distinguished Information Age as an economy based on information computerization. This information era's foundation was laid with the invention of early computing devices such as the abacus in Babylonia over 5000 years ago.

As time ticked away, a relatively advanced computing device was assembled by the "Father of Computers", Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath of the 19th century. But, as the British government decided that the then project was not as viable as previously conceived, it was dissolved thereafter. However, this advancement sparked the need to develop a more sophisticated computer system – analog computers followed by the mightier digital computers.

The two dreadful world wars, which claimed lives of about 11 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians, was seen relying heavily on machines and computers. In order to achieve the favourable outcome and establish technological dominance, the government of United States heavily funded its navy to develop an electromechanical analog computer small enough to be used aboard a submarine, hence successfully shrinking its size, equipping the machine with precision, and educating it to solve firing problems using trigonometry.

It is undeniable that man's need to win has often yielded in technological advancement. As the world recuperated from the disasters of war, a new battle field was prepped for the show of dominance. The entire world witnessed the launch of the Soviet Union's artificial satellite, Sputnik, on October 4, 1957. Some viewed this news with suspicion, some with envy, and some with caution as the foundations were laid to usher in a new era. Another such war- worn invention that is noteworthy is the Internet (WWW - the world wide web).

With the breaking of the war, the importance of communication and information sharing within a small window of time became very crucial. The military realised efficiency of the packet networking system for communication. The US Department of Defence sanctioned funds for project ARPANET. This project helped in developing an eco-system of connecting networks. Simultaneously the UK government funded experts like Donald Davies to design and develop packet network between the 1960s and early 1970s.

Soon, man realised the application of computer and communications to non- defence sectors like business, commerce, pharmaceutical, etc. Because of the realisations that private entities operated differently to that of the armed forces, principal designers, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, of the United States, invented UNIVAC – the first commercial computer. Having seen the foundation for the PCs / laptops, the market then saw many entrants. Facing the cut-throat competition, IBM, another American multinational technology company, invented IBM 702 to go toe-to-toe with UNIVAC.

As humans progressed, they envisioned a computer for each individual, terming them personal computers, and called it laptops in a few years. The first personal computers were assembled in 1975 and came as kits: The MITS Altair 8800, followed by the IMSAI 8080, an Altair clone. It seemed that a new universe of possibility lay at our feet. And first to try their luck was college dropout Bill Gates with his childhood friend Paul Allen, establishing Microsoft. Leading ahead on the path of progress, Microsoft added many feathers to its hat - Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), Windows, Web browser – Internet explorer, gaming console Xbox, and much more. Soon the technology sector saw fierce competition as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak began their Apple journey; Intel was founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce; Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, and Ed Oates started a software company ORACLE, and so on.

On April 3, 1973, Martin Cooper made the first call via a mobile phone. The initial handset though not made with consumers in mind was sold for $4,000 each. Standing true to its meaning Mo-bile – on the go communication – the sector stands witness to staggering facts. With a legacy of 150 years, Nokia entered the mobile communications in 1968 and soon won over 250 million consumers, making their model Nokia 1100 the best-selling electrical gadget in history.

Not long after, Packet networking system combined with satellite commutation leading to the development of the present Internet. Attendee Mark Pesce during the first International Conference on the World Wide Web, Geneva, addressed the audience, "if the web can be said to have had a starting gun, it fired on that Wednesday morning at CERN," marking the arrival of WWW in the year 1994. The Internet opened such a world of technology where man is only at the hem of it. As the human civilization grows, so does his imagination to do the unthinkable. Technology has helped man to achieve that I-m-Possible.

With social networking, RFID, QR Code, graphic user interface, bar codes and scanners, SRAM flash memory, augmented and virtual reality, etc., technology is progressing at a very fast pace. Combine technology with man's imagination and we are sure to find GOD soon. Although having progressed so much, technology has few shades tainted red. Critics are often heard blaming technology advancement for impersonal communication, growing distances, globalising community, privacy and security frauds etc. Another worthwhile debate is pin pointing the master vs. the slave. But having given the democratic setting, it's safe to say for now that it's user's call of how to employ technology to enhance the quality of life.</comment>


Biddy Mason: From Slave to California Entrepreneur - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddy_Mason <comment><AUTHOR> Biddy Bridget Mason (1815-1891) was born into slavery and given as a wedding gift to a Mormon couple in Mississippi named Robert and Rebecca Smith. In 1847 at age 32, Biddy Mason was forced to walk from Mississippi to Utah tending cattle behind her master's 300-wagon caravan.

After four years in Salt Lake City, Smith took the group to a new Mormon settlement in San Bernardino, California in search of gold. Biddy Mason soon discovered that the California State Constitution made slavery illegal, and that her master planned to move them all to Texas to avoid freeing them. With the help of some free blacks she had befriended, she and the other slaves attempted to run away to Los Angeles, but they were intercepted by Smith and brought back. However, when he tried to leave the state with his family and slaves, a local posse prevented his flight. Biddy had Robert Smith brought into court on a writ of habeas corpus. She, her daughters, and the ten other slaves were held in jail for their own safety until the judge heard the case and granted their freedom.

Now free, Mason and her three daughters moved to Los Angeles where they worked and saved enough money to buy a house at 331 Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. Biddy was employed as a nurse, midwife, and domestic servant. She was one of the first black women to own land in the city of Los Angeles. She had the gumption to use part of her land as a temporary resting place for horses and carriages, and people visiting town paid money in exchange for the space. This can be considered the first "parking lot" in Los Angeles!

Knowing what it meant to be oppressed and friendless, Biddy Mason immediately began a philanthropic career by opening her home to the poor, hungry, and homeless. Through hard work, saving, and investing carefully, she was able to purchase large amounts of real estate including a commercial building, which provided her with enough income to help build schools, hospitals, and churches. Her financial fortunes continued to increase until she accumulated a fortune of almost $300,000. In today's money, that would be $6M. Her most noted accomplishment is the founding of the First AME Church in California.</comment>


Show HN: Yogi, Document Clustering as a Service - <AUTHOR> https://cluster.meetyogi.com/ <comment><USER2> What's an example of a business that would want to do this, and why? It looks interesting, but I fear the landing page is too geared towards saying what it does, but not telling a potential user why they'd want to do it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great question, and one we're still juggling with :) We have some management consulting firms that use the clustering results as part of the analysis they do for clients, and some brands that have used it to better understand what people are asking them on their customer support tasks.

I guess this is one of the difficulties that comes with NLP, since it can be applicable across a wide range of use cases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very interested to see the direction this all goes. Good luck.</comment>


Persuade or Be Persuaded - <AUTHOR> https://thepointmag.com/2019/politics/persuade-or-be-persuaded-agnes-callard <comment><USER2> Pretending abstract principles have black-or-white truth value is the root cause of the problem. Each party trying to persuade the other in an argument is just papering over that fundamental issue. How can two people on opposite sides of a contentious debate ever agree if their logical axioms/priorities are not the same? Debating principles is a touch of luxurious navel-gazing that is available only when suitably screened from real world consequences and related emotions.

A far more constructive approach, IMHO, is to debate actions, and try to find middle ground. The reasons for which either of the disputing parties might consider the resulting action satisfactory might be completely different, but what matters is that it allows the deadlock to be resolved and for people to move on. In most cases, that is what the parties seek, and are happy to work towards and concede minor ideological points in the matter.

However, with increasing emphasis on abstract statements, people easily lose touch with reality and are prone to pointless bikeshedding, but with increasing polarization and anger, while the actual situation becomes worse.

It seems more natural that we derive principles from behavior as a bunch of abstractions convenient to communicate, rather than deriving behavior from principles.

<comment><USER3> Often you cannot give the proper context of why an action is prefered until you debate/speak of the principles. For example, we both may want healthcare, but there isn't an easy 'action' to arrive at without discussing the 'truth' of if people have the right to their health or if the framing of the decision should be a market economic one. So I think you need both: both abstract arguments (without navel-gazing) and also a focus on the here-and-now immediacy of need fulfillment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think, increasingly these days, those who are in the wrong (like the picket- line crossing author) know that they're wrong and wallow in it like pigs in... mud. You can't convince folks like that, and it's disingenuous of them to demand that you waste your time trying to do so.

</comment><comment><USER5> Good response here: [https://thepointmag.com/2019/politics/whose-university- respo...](https://thepointmag.com/2019/politics/whose-university-response- agnes-callard)

Don't be a scab.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a harsh thing to say and here goes. This article and its response are boring. They're what happen when you take a high-stakes situation (union creation, scabs, overworked grad students) and take all the emotion out of it. People already interested may read these happily, but as a layperson, it took some effort for me.

The tldr; is ("scab" professor) supports holding class even when the sky is falling because of their duty to educate. The other side (grad student organizer) argues that not holding class was okay because many undergrads supported the grad student's efforts. Scattered throughout are references to Plato/Socrates and some philosophical musings on if grad students are employees in the since of working for a business (and therefore able to unionize).</comment>


Small world Health Body by vi 90 days challange - <AUTHOR> http://www.smallworldhealth.ca/ Thanks for checking out my site. I am so excited about the Body by Vi™ Challenge!
This 90 Day Challenge has already helped people lose millions of pounds! There are tens of thousands of people joining each month!
The Body by Vi™ Challenge was created by ViSalus Sciences®, the company behind one of the fastest growing health movements in the world.
ViSalus is challenging the world to set a personal goal and make health a priority for at least 90 days, while awarding the participants with over $25,000,000 a year in free product, prizes and vacations.
Body by Vi was even featured on the latest cover story of Success From Home Magazine, and mentioned in the Wall Street Journal.
This thing is exploding! That is why they gave me this great website to help share the Challenge with others. <comment><AUTHOR> good</comment>


How to Read an Unlabeled Sales Chart (2013) - <AUTHOR> https://www.evanmiller.org/how-to-read-an-unlabeled-sales-chart.html <comment><USER2> I remember "How Not To Sort By Average Rating" by the same author, which I am confident helped shape thousands of recommendation/quality sorting algorithms (including Reddit or Yelp), over the years that followed its writing.

[https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average- rating...](https://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html)

<comment><USER3> I doubt it. Evan's algorithm optimizes for user satisfaction. Merchants optimize for engagement and conversion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Oh, this is a great read! I fondly recall a meeting with extremely bright individuals, and several of us were able to deduce the scale on the fly using the Riemann Zeta Function trick. The presenter was not pleased (the deduced number was not exactly complimentary to their messaging).

<comment><USER3> How does that work, since in the common case the number of pixels would be rounded to nearest integer?

The article explains that this only works if you assume that there are much fewer sales than pixels, so that sales divide pixels.

<comment><USER4> If I remember correctly, the metrics were in millions (and clearly rounded to the nearest million).

And it wasn't sales data, I believe it had to do with chip design or marketshare (during the design phase of the current generation of consoles).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > In the absence of calamity, fortuitous events, or brilliant new marketing > strategies, sale counts are well-described by a Poisson process. That is, > you can think of there being an underlying average number of sales per day, > and each day will be a realization of a Poisson distribution with that > average.

Can someone give a bit more justification for this? It seems like the average rate shouldn't be constant and is heavily dependent on time/date.

If not, is there another justification for why sales mean should equal sales variance?

<comment><USER3> > shouldn't be constant and is heavily dependent on time/date.

A priori it is assumed that sales are independent of time. That's part of what Poisson distribution means -- a constant rate of rolls of a fixed weighted die. The assumption could be wrong.

> justification for why sales mean should equal sales variance

[https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Variance_of_Poisson_Distribution](https://proofwiki.org/wiki/Variance_of_Poisson_Distribution)</comment></comment>


Recreating the Neolithic toolkit - <AUTHOR> https://www.archaeology.org/issues/152-1411/features/2591-germany-recreating-neolithic-toolkit <comment><USER2> Primitive Technology shows what techniques are possible for stone age hominids, albeit some ideas, like the blower forge, are likely inspired by modern inventions. But who knows what clever Neolithic hacks existed, until we dig them up.

[https://primitivetechnology.wordpress.com](https://primitivetechnology.wordpress.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> A minor point, I'm not sure "first carpenter" is justified here

"How experimental archaeology is showing that Europe's first farmers were also its first carpenters."

There is the possibility that either Neanderthal or Erectus made it to the island of Cyprus, as early as 170,000 years ago:

[https://phys.org/news/2012-11-anthropologist- mediterranean-i...](https://phys.org/news/2012-11-anthropologist- mediterranean-islands-inhabited-earlier.html)

Elsewhere in the world, we know of Erectus making it islands far from the mainland, islands which are believed to have been far from the mainland even with exaggerated assumptions about the low sea levels of the Ice Age.

At a stretch, you could make the case that sea levels got so low during the Ice Age that an early human could simply walk from Africa to Cyprus, or perhaps Anatolia to Cyprus -- that is, you could argue that Cyprus was part of the mainland. But I don't know of anyone serious ever making that argument.

The more likely alternative is that Neanderthal or Erectus built a boat and got to Cyprus over the water. If so, you'd have to consider them the first carpenters in Europe. Boats take some sophistication. You have to at least take a good axe and shape the trees you are working with.</comment>


World's First Dengue Vaccine Originated from SLU Research - <AUTHOR> https://www.slu.edu/news/2015/december/dengue-vaccine.php <comment><AUTHOR> _A vaccine to prevent dengue fever discovered by a Saint Louis University researcher in 1997 and now licensed worldwide by Sanofi Pasteur has been approved for use in Mexico. Dengvaxia® is the world 's first vaccine approved to prevent dengue fever, which is a virus spread by mosquitoes primarily in tropical and sub-tropical areas.

"Dengue fever is a huge costly and debilitating health problem in virtually all developing countries. It is very painful, puts people in the hospital and takes a major toll on the health of children," said Graeme Thomas, director of the office of technology transfer at Saint Louis University.

"SLU is a leader in the field of vaccine development and we're proud to play a role in efforts to prevent human suffering and disease."

SLU is a leader in the field of vaccine development and we're proud to play a role in efforts to prevent human suffering and disease. According to the World Health Organization, about half of the world's population is at risk of developing dengue fever, which is a growing health threat. Dengue is believed to be under-reported, with an estimated 390 million infections a year. With symptoms similar to influenza, dengue affects babies, young children and adults. A rare and severe form of dengue can be deadly, causing extensive bleeding under the skin and inside the body.

Saint Louis University holds the patent on the vaccine, which was developed in 1997 by Thomas Chambers, M.D., then an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology. While at SLU, Chambers studied flaviviruses, which typically are spread by mosquitoes in hot, rainy climates. He has subsequently pursued a career in private industry.

A biopharmaceutical company that became Acambis Inc. obtained rights for vaccines developed at SLU to prevent dengue, Japanese encephalitis and West Nile. Acambis later partnered with Sanofi Pasteur to conduct human clinical trials of the vaccine in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Acambis was acquired by Sanofi in 2008.

While Mexico is the first country to approve the use of the dengue vaccine, regulatory boards in other countries where dengue fever is endemic are reviewing licensing the vaccine. In a press release, Sanofi said it has produced first doses of the vaccine. When operating at full production capacity, Sanofi expects to produce 100 million vaccine doses a year._</comment>


Japanese Math Professor Excellent on Optical Illusionist - <AUTHOR> http://youtu.be/Wx4yi5m8IfI Japanese mathematics professor Kokichi Sugihara spends much of his time in a world where up is down and three dimensions are really only two. Professor Sugihara is one of the world's leading exponents of optical illusion, a mathematical art-form that he says could have application in the real world.
Three sloped ramps are aligned along three of the four sides of a square. Each ramp appears to be sloped in the same direction but when a marble is placed at one end of the ramp it seems to defy gravity.
It's called an "anti-gravity slide". Only when the the entire structure is turned 180 degrees, is the illusion revealed.
Japanese mathematics professor Kokichi Sugihara from the Meiji Institute near Tokyo, has made a career of creating optical illusions. He's devised and built more than a hundred of them, like this one called "Perches and a Ring".
[Kokichi Sugihara, Meiji University Professor]: "Among these models, there are those which are reproductions of optical illusions, and others that seem like normal models, but when you add movement to them, they show movement that should be impossible in real life. This is done by using the same trick, and I call them 'impossible motions'."
Professor Sugihara's "impossible motions" have been recognized around the world. He won first prize in an international competition last year with this one, called "Magnet-Like Slopes".
Sugihara says the success of his illusions is tied to human perception. Because humans have the capacity to perceive two-dimensional objects as being three-dimensional, they can be fooled into believing that something "impossible" is taking place during the course of the illusion.
For Sugiraha the illusions aren't just for amusement. He says they have real world application. For example, he says misjudgments made by drivers on steeply curved roads could be mitigated by changing their perceptions of the immediate environment.
[Kokichi Sugihara, Meiji University Professor]: "If we can find how drivers misjudge an incline, we would be able to construct roads where these incidents are less likely to happen. In other cases, we could also reorganize the surrounding environment so that drivers could more easily see the difference between an ascending and descending road, and it could lead to reducing traffic jams."
Sugihara says says his dream is to create playground amusements - even buildings with his models. More immediately though he has plans for an "impossible object exhibition", a venue to demonstrate that seeing really is believing. <comment><USER2> I wonder if the reporter referring to the math professor as a "leading exponent" of optical illusion was an intentional pun.</comment>