skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I was fascinated by Fidel's choice of attire when he appeared before the Communist Party congress in April.

I think I've only seen him in the green military uniform. But at the congress he wore an Adidas jacket!

It would be interesting to know the story behind that.

Edit: Naturally, a half hour after posting this, I realized there was probably a way to find out...

https://www.google.com/search?q=fidel+castro+adidas
Claiming Cuba and the US are comparable in the respect is absurd. Castro killed thousands of his own civilians to stay in power. Here in the US, you can literally disavow the president (c.f. #NotMyPresident) without any consequence.

>To be fair in the US there are also attacks for supporting political parties.

There is a HUGE difference between your government killing you for your political beliefs and a member of the opposing political party "attacking" you for your political beliefs. People break the law all the time. It's a whole other level of unfair when the government murders you.

I would never trade the freedoms I have in the US for the "freedoms" seen in Cuba.
>it's a far cry from a scientific fact, which it seems like not just this comment, but a lot of us in the west (even mainstream academic economics) sell the idea as.

Centrally planning an economy is an NP complete problem. Marxism is dumb and if any would be socialist on this forum can explain to me how we as a society can retain the benefits yielded by capitalism without the use of capital and how socialism of such a form can exist without a centrally planned economy, I'm all ears.

Marxism has failed and failed and then failed again, and then it also led to the deaths of 100 million.
do you see anyone defending those responsible for the crimes you listed?
> It's sad that people should hold such a tyrant in such esteem

What is sad is how quickly people reach for a wide, monotone brush they like to paint things with lately. As an american, i have heard roughly your description of castro my entire life. To hear another version, from someone living a life in a continent i have never visited is both refreshing and educational.
I fully sympathize with that fact and it's correct.

Just as I understand there is some Cuban goodwill with respect to the doctors they send abroad - and early on Fidel's creation of better literacy/healthcare programs.

But remember this: Fidel worked with the Russians to put nuclear weapons 40 miles away from the USA - and created a crazy situation - the closest the world has ever been to full blown nuclear war. That was this man's hubris - he nearly helped put the world on fire. That kind of existential threat is not easily forgotten. Point being: the 'embargo' is 100% Fidel's fault, and he could have easily taken steps to have it removed, but his ego would not allow it.
>This might be easy for you to comment on when you didn't lose your entire life because of this man but people have.

Tons of people have lost their entire life because of US actions. And in places the US had no role to be at all, to boot.

It's beyond double standards...
as he demonstrated the version from the other continent was uninformed
After reading some of the comments here, my fath in the human race is not enhanced.

Castro was a genuine hero and a great man; indeed among the top 10 greatest individuals of the 20th century. He believed in freedom and dignity. He saw the US government as the enemy of progress everywhere in the world; he wanted people to be free and he devoted his life to that ideal.

How many people can you say that of?

> He was also an evil dictator...

Lol @ evil dictator. Fidel Castro never killed as many people as Nixon, Reagan, Bush or Blair. He did not go half way around the world as Thatcher did to claim an Island 4,000 km away from home (Falklands).

>...who silenced any and all opposition

What opposition? Imperialists and mafia members who wished to turn Cuba into an enclave for gambling? CIA operatives who tried to return Cuba to its occupied past?

> just look at Cuba today

Just look at Iraq, Libya,Syria today. And while you are at it; look also at Iran, China, Russia (which evaded western occupation). Indeed, look at Mexico which is friendly terms and has not been invaded yet by the US and tell me how much they have gained from that relationship.

I detest the hypocrisy I see in many (not all) western commentators. The spin and one sided arguments, the glossing over historical truths. Cuba is behind in development because of the American embargo.Simple. Not because the regime had no plan for economic development. In healthcare, this small nation with a health care budget 0.001% of the US beats the USA hands down in universal coverage and access to health. Who knows what would have happened if previous administrations had left them alone.

Finally, Castro sent troops to Africa to fight against colonial occupiers. He sent armies to harass the apartheid regime at the Angolan/ Namibian border. This counts as a plus in my book.

Rest on Fidel. You have fought the fight and lived like a man. I will pray for you. May heaven receive your soul.
This is a good joke, but unfortunately, is not an accurate description of communism. As the parent comment suggests, there were no real communism nation on earth ever.

"""
In political and social sciences, communism (from Latin communis, "common, universal")[1][2] is a social, political, and economic ideology and movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of the communist society, which is a socioeconomic order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production and the absence of social classes, money,[3][4] and the state.[5][6]
"""
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism
I'm sure every horrible person did some good and charitable things sometimes. Hitler started the first anti smoking campaigns, was opposed to animal cruelty and did many charitable works to help the poor in his nation. That doesn't change that he was a very oppressive leader and the mere fact that we can find some good things he did doesn't make Hitler a Legend who lives on.

No I'm not denying that providing hospitals and doctors to Africa is a good thing, but America, and even ordinary Americans like Bill Gates have done so much more for Africa than Castro ever did, and it seems rather unfair that Western efforts are neglected and we are seen as colonizers to seek independence from whereas brutal and oppressive dictators such as Castro are presented as honored crusaders for throwing a smidgen of help to Africa.
Obituary: Fidel Castro
The view point is very interesting.

But I'd say its factually incorrect.

Should incorrect statements be downvoted even if it shows an interesting state of mind?
i dont think you can make a coherent argument that castro simply had "underwhelming" results
> Per capita GDP for Cuba is $6,051.22

That does not mean anything if the wealth is not well distributed (which is the case when elites keep the wealth and everyone else is poor).
>He condemned an entire nation to poverty!

That's more because of the embargo than anything Cubans did. And even given that, they do way better than most latin american "free" nations.

>His most notable achievement with regards to Africa was sending soldiers to extend the life of wars.

Let's not go into which country, besides Germany and USSR, started more wars, meddled in more places, held more peopls down by installing friendly dictators in power, and caused more hurt in the 20th/21st century...
Ask HN: At what age did you use a computer for the first time?
What were the specifications? (if you remember them)
+ "It's in control of the state, " - actually, it's in control of the Army directly.

+ The US sprayed 'agent orange' on trees near their firebases, and the vast majority of the 'victims' were American soldiers, not Vietnamese. Obviously, they didn't know what it would do.

+ The 'embargo' is 100% the fault of Fidel. He put nuclear weapons 40 miles away from florida, from those who backed by the credible threat of using them, thereby putting hundreds of millions of lives at risk. That's why the embargo started - he had ample time to wind it down. Jimmy Carter, Clinton, Obama - and even Bush Sr. would have made a deal of Fidel agreed to have elections.
Fidel Castro, revolutionary Cuban icon, dies
I think we can admit that there was good and bad to him and he was not objectively virtuous or evil.
There is not even such thing. There exists no major economy in modern history which is either 100% planned or 100% "free market" (anarchist).

Well anyways, the objective fact here is that Cuba is objectively richer and more successful than some nearby economies that have had more right wing influence in nearby Central America.
thanks for exposing the truth
platitudes < arguments
>I just think it is ridiculous to claim that Castro was "a great leader" when Cuba has fared very poorly under Castro in almost every respect. I felt obliged to point this out.

Were they given the chance (cold war, embargo, et al)?

I feel obliged to point this out too.
I agree with a lot what you are saying, but rest assured its colored by personal rationalizations one has made while learning these things and not objective facts.

nns are in no way less fundamentally associated with probability than say linear regression. In both cases you can start with a probability model and derive the final form as a logical consequence, or you can start with the final form and slap a consistent probabilistic model on top.

The main thing is that any test you come up with that carves nns away from stats is going to carve a whole lot of other things that people have no trouble calling them stats. This controversy essentially stems from the need to claim a technique for ones own tribe and not concede to another. I am making no moral claim here just an observation and neither is it a novel one.

BTW I am firmly from the ml camp and not stats. I enjoy poking a little bit of fun at statisticians and try being gracious about their criticism of ml. That said i feel no need to make a groundless claim to a technique when they have no less rights to it in terms of objective claims. Rights steeped in culture, fiat and history are a different matter.
>Like being able to support two parties that alternate in power, like you are free to do in the US?

My point is that Castro kills people who support opposition parties. You aren't free to support parties other than the one in power if you are in Cuba.
Yes! There is nothing like a video game ability to spark interest in history, at least for me. I experienced the same thing after playing "Empire: Total War. Napoleon."

Afterwards, I inhaled biographies on him. My favorite was the Felix Markham book: https://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-Signet-Classics-Felix-Markha...
There is a huge difference between not having passion and not wanting to overspend it.

I once believed the usual propaganda about "passion" and "work hard, play hard". But I was so miserable at my job that I actually wanted to quit software engineering for good. Fast forward 5 years and I now have a 9 to 5 job (8 to 4 actually, which is even better for me). I can assure you that the main difference is that my current job is emotionally manageable and, more important, sustainable. Which is good both for me and for my employer. Meanwhile, I've seen lots of burnout on people who continued to believe the propaganda. Which is, again, bad both for them and their employers.

Forgetting about my job duties and considering myself unemployed from 4PM to 8AM has done wonders for both my mental health and my output at work. It's a win-win situation.
Writing Specs with Org-mode
As a Russian, who was born in USSR, I regret that CIA has failed to assassinate him 50 years ago. May be Cuba would be liberated from communist/socialist disease.

Look at countries who declared a war against free markets - Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea. They are absolutely pathetic.
> Cuba has been under embargos for decades.

An embargo sparked by Castro. Just saying.
¡¡ Hasta la victoria final !!
I echo your sentiments; unfortunately the problem is much, much bigger than this.

The value of human labor has been steadily declining for decades; driving down the political power of laborers.

Self driving trucks & taxis, delivery drones, robots, I don't even.
https://vimeo.com/190609870

Our society is going to undergo a dramatic shift.

Yes, technology has created new jobs, but it has also massively devalued it; a highschool graduate can no longer support a family at a lifelong factory job.
" To hear another version, from someone living a life in a continent i have never visited is both refreshing and educational."

I guess it's fair that many Americans don't know a lot about him and don't know about the details of his activities in Africa with doctors (and military, by the way). But that's kind of an American thing ... not enough 'world events' in the American press :), no offense.
That sounds more like socialism from what I understand. Communism is more like you and your friends work on a farm, live off what you produce, all do some work, but you are not paid different or receive more or less food/accommodation/luxuries than each other. You are all equal.

Now if one of you gets ill, or decides to slack off then that person will still be supported. If everyone slacks off then the society is f'd.
this is a good point. i dont think you can really call the us good guys here (or cuba, for that matter)
I agree with you, but if your argument for why Cuba is bad is based on a principle that you can be oppressed for political views, then you should still be consistent about it and not selectively apply that principle to only Cuba.

Even if it's only a minority that is being oppressed, and even if both you and I don't agree with their awful politics, it doesn't make it any less wrong to attack them.
Comments like yours are why I leave showdead on.
Thanks for the feedback, though please note that I'm only attempting to civilly rephrase my parent's comment, not my own position. :)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13042013
If you're going to downvote this, I'd really appreciate a response as to why.
Insane ? I'll be the judge of my sanity, not you.

>> -Cuban economy

Destroyed by American embargo.

>> -Cuban quality of life

See above.

I'm not arguing Castro was a saint, far from it. But you cannot lay blame of the suffering of Cuba at the feet of Castro only.
No, but I do see people calling a leader/country/regime "evil" etc for doing 1/10th of what theirs, which they'd never think of calling evil, did.
>Way less crimes than those who accuse him. Never sprayed Vietnamese with Agent Orange or napalms for one, never dropped nuclear bombs on civilians, never supported Pinochet et co, doesn't have 25% of the world's incarcerated in just 4% of the global population, and lots of other things besides.

That's a logical fallacy. You can't say that Castro's crimes against humanity are okay because the US has committed worse ones.

>A 40+ years embargo has something to do with that too...

Only a US embargo. That leaves more than 80% of the world GDP to interact with.
Life expectancy for Cuba is slightly higher than that of the US.
Show HN: Tool for managing code patterns (JavaScript)
I would encourage the commenters in this thread who see Fidel's legacy as a black-and-white matter of an "evil dictator who did bad things and was wrong about economics" to step back, bear witness to the objective facts about Fidel Castro's life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro), think sincerely about what could lead a highly intelligent and charismatic person to become or follow Fidel Castro (as many have), and take a moment to reflect on the complexities of global politics in the 20th century.

I am not a fan of Fidel Castro - quite the opposite - but humans are cut from a common cloth. When we see revolutions turn into dictatorships, and idealism deteriorate into a cynical fight to survive, it is foolish and dangerous to dismiss the dictators and revolutionaries as "evil" or "idiots" or some similarly otherizing term. It is dangerous because it means we are refusing to learn from history, and to apply the lessons of other lives to our own. Fidel Castro's mistakes are our mistakes to repeat, or to learn from.

If you hold yourself holier than Fidel Castro, and think that celebrating the death of someone you perceive as "evil" is prudent, take a deep long moment and try to learn something non-trivial from his life. "Fidel Castro" in the particular was not some kind of unique demon who plagued humanity. He was a charismatic revolutionary who occupied a very complex time. His life's trajectory was in many respects one of tragic failure. He may have, in reality, occupied a very dark corner of history, but that is for us to learn and judge, not to assume.

If you think you're better, then do better. Be better. Don't refuse to acknowledge the humanity of another person because you believe you can totalize their entire life under a cheap tagline.
That's like saying that there are no capitalist societies by claiming that capitalism is some higher, perfect ideal which has just not been implemented yet perfectly. Or calling the outcome of christian rule in the middle ages "not really christian" by comparing it to a biblical description of heaven.

If there are people who call themselves communists and they create societies, then "communism" should be judged on that.
While you're at it, let me add one to your list

* allow true multicurrency operation - a Stripe client in any country should be able to accept funds in any currency Stripe supports.

Case in point, as a Canadian, I can accept only USD or CAD. But I have clients in the UK, and am stuck using Paypal to accept GBP directly.
Has there been a single anti-American dictator who has actually improved the lives of their people? It seems the amount of anti-American rhetoric is directly correlated with how much they screw their country over.
Sure but I will want to take a break at the beach, at an attraction, or worst case at a supermarket.

When going from Palm Beach to Orlando, we traded more time on the road for a visit to Cape Canaveral. (Way) more than 30 minutes, but the kids didn't notice neither that nor the 5 minutes stop to fill the tank...

Oh well, at least if there is going to be some kind of valet service around superchargers, it's going to be more healthy than a job filling up tanks.
What do you think about the wisdom of putting nuclear weapons 160 miles away from the USSR in Turkey? The Cuban deployment was a direct response to American provocation.
That explanation is sublime.
Mulle-objc: A New Objective-C Compiler and Runtime
> Fidel worked with the Russians to put nuclear weapons 40 miles away from the USA

That's after US did the same to Russia and failed invasion of Cuba.
“In response to the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961, and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev decided to agree to Cuba's request to place nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter future harassment of Cuba.” [1]

You may want to read [2], which was posted on HN before. In short, US was a real bully back then. Anything did by Cuba and USSR were mostly reactive knee-jerking response to the aggressive stance of US.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Missile_Crisis

[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real...
Windows 10 Product Key Generator 64Bit and 32Bit Full Free
That's more because of the embargo than anything Cubans did.

The embargo was with the US. Other countries (as long as the company doesn't do business in the US) were free to trade with Cuba.

Sure the embargo didn't help, but the poor state of the Cuba economy mostly lies at the feet of the Castro.
Agreed! But board games in my case.

I have Command & Colors: Napoleonics and a biography of Napoleon sitting next to my desk as I type this.

http://www.gmtgames.com/p-576-commands-colors-napoleonics-3r...
Could you link me to that plugin please?
I think it would be most constructive to provide counterfactual evidence in a comment, and then down vote if so inclined. As a reader, I'd find that most helpful.
And Stalin helped defeat Germany in WW2. That doesn't really make up for the millions of Russians he killed for political reasons.
I love truffle oil.
If you have a better word, surely suggest. what is the word for "clinging to power for seven decades and taking the country through economic hell, year after year, all the while jailing political opponents and at times getting rid of them"
Although I agree with your content, it's not relevant to Castro.
Exactly. And why should you? Especially if your own efforts to make something "production worthy" are shut down -- indicative of both a social and a technical problem.
Ah, so it's okay for the US to have gone into Iraq and destroyed the country, killing hundreds of thousands in the process, then abandoning it, all to shore up support for a shaky election for an incumbent president at home... because you live a cushy SV lifestyle?

If you really are as sick as you emote about these kind of atrocities, then move away from the US, because the US hurts a lot of people to maintain its high standard of living. New Zealand is a pretty ethical place that doesn't kill either it's own citizens or those abroad. Its economy doesn't rely on abusing migrant workers. It has a decent tech scene. Go there.

Or you could just do the usual counter-counter-culture blather while not actually changing your life to suit your stated morals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_quoque

Tu quoque fallacy, for the record
I wish Toyota would release an update for older vehicles. Our Prius V won't let you adjust the navigation destination or even reconnect bluetooth devices while in gear (even with a passenger!). This means that if the bluetooth connection dies, it won't reconnect until you pull over. Huge pain in the butt.

Everything this article suggests sounds like a disaster. I'm sure they'll implement it with low range NFC around the driver, but it will still cause massive headaches for other occupants and won't even accomplish what it is meant to (i.e. people willing to break the law now will simply bypass it, and everyone else will be inconvenienced).
Ask HN: Open Source Password Changing Software?
Are there any open source solutions to Dashlane and LastPass's mass multiple account auto password changing service?
No you can dump low level waste under 1m of topsoil, and build a hospital or school or kindergarten on top of it. That's why its called low-level waste.

>> And the low level waste - of which there is approx 360000 tons? Would the Mariana Trench would be a good/safe place to place this? Based on what reckoning?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_disposal_of_radioactive_...
Clearly double standards. It's not as if Cuba has been ruled by a strongman and all decisions of the state can be solely attributed to him while the US is ruled by a system where attribution of fault is significantly less clear.
You're comparing apples and oranges, Fidel never killed millions, The U.S. government alone has killed far more people in a single day than Cuba under Fidel Castro.
I've been off of it for more than two years now, surviving just fine.
It wasn't actually better under Batista, where the former elites (mostly in Florida now) had a greater share of the wealth than the elites today.
Because there's no way that a Communist dictatorship would ever lie about that.
Why bother? Just limit all 55 miles zone to 45. And 45s to 35. I bet statistically it will safe 1.7 life per 10-years. Then keep limiting them to practically walk-speed and we all be fine!

/s
Yep. Communism fails because people arent equal. same reason socialism introduces inefficiency
(I work at Stripe.) We're working on it! What's your email? I'll let you know once this is live. (Alternatively, feel free to shoot me an email: lachy@stripe.com)
500 Indian Govt Website Sqlinjection Vulnerability Found