skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I was reading this and it made me sad. Not because of the obvious content but because of the diagnosis being thrown around and how when reading them my immediate thought was "I hope it isn't a personality disorder". I say this knowing full well that many insurance companies will NOT cover anything related to personality disorders because they feel that they aren't curable.

I still remember when I called my insurance company at my first job after college to see if they would cover an exam to diagnose an autism spectrum disorder for myself. Their response was as follows: they would cover it if I was found not to have autism and they would not cover it if I did have autism. I remember taking time in the private room I was in at work and just crying. It was just so backwards. In fact, I have been putting off going back for further testing solely because the official diagnosis won't benefit me but could only harm me. At least now if I go see a therapist, the individual symptoms would be listed as reason for the visit instead of possibly something that no insurance company would cover.
Story time!

My brother (3 years younger) suffers from pretty much the same global disorder as described in the blog; the main difference is that we're in France (well, my family still is; I moved a few years ago).

Throughout childhood, he presented a mix of pretty much every single psychological disorder possible- bipolar, paranoia, kleptomania, depression, etc. He was extremely manipulative, and knew how to be perfectly sweet like the author describes. I always saw it as a very contrived act on his part, one in perhaps in lost himself at times- but I believe that when he presents this adorable facade, he is mostly in control of it. He has definitely threatened my parents or myself with a knife, and I'm glad we have decent gun control in France. I believe that if he hadn't grown up in a wealthy privileged environment, he'd be dead or roaming the streets today.

IQ tests put him in the ~120-130 range, and psychologists recommended a wide array of solutions, ranging from the behavioral (for example one determined that it was because he didn't feel secure and had enough privacy, and suggested that he should get locks for his room etc.- that led to an entire different set of complications, and that psychologist was abandoned promptly.) to the medical (although he was never subjected to the wide variety of antidepressants cited in the article- France in the 90s-early 00s seemed to avoid those sort of things).

Ultimately, nothing worked. Things got much, much worse with adolescence; he went to 4 schools, all very different (one public school, one catholic private school, one boarding school in the countryside, etc.), and got kicked out of all of them but one. My parents did find a few things that mitigated his conditions: for example, he was in the boy scouts for a few years, which helped.

Today he's 20, barely graduated high school; he now lives somewhere in the French mountains with his girlfriend, chopping wood and harvesting grapes. We haven't talked (other than "hey what's up" at family meals once a year) in 7 years or so.

I could probably write an entire book on the topic, but would rather avoid to do so for the moment; but if anyone has questions, I'll gladly answer them.
Regulating guns ("outlawing" is a straw man) ameliorates the problem of how much damage a mentally disturbed person can do.

A knife in the same situation is much less dangerous, as evidenced by the incident in China at the same time where people were hurt, but none so far killed.

Degrees matter.
I've taken PhD Econometrics where we touched zero data and was 100% theoretical over the 9 months, so I don't think we are talking about the same thing. I don't like spewing out economically technical non-sense on HN, so I wasn't going to go into the methods of moments part of that comment as it applies to the current state of econometric theory.

In econometric theory, method of moments comes up in the largest way in the form of generalized methods of moments (or GMM). The idea behind GMM is one that is in competition with maximum likelihood, with the point being that GMM doesn't force you to make arbitrary assumptions about the true probability distribution of the data, purely for the implementation of the model. This seems obviously attractive, because then the results of our model won't be jeopardized just because one of our assumptions was false. In other words, GMM provides a way to estimate the parameters of a model with out making assumptions about the population.

Oh, and the topic of rational agents is not relevant here. This is a purely statistical/philosophical argument.

But there goes the economist in me again... I'm sorry.
Perhaps my observation is skewed by the fact that I see so many mothers dropping kids at the houikuen (nursery) are using them. Also at my suburban station bike park, I estimate 30% are eb. If you count bikes in use, as I do, rather than those static outside a mansion, you get into the 30% ballpark in my neighbourhood.
I am not sure whether this new gear tech suits EB, but it seems it might be good for them to ride the eb trend , which is large and growing.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the idea that one day people will try to optimize their genes, even if it's only self-selecting.

Yet:

1) Hereditary factors can only explain a small part of the picture. Eliminating hereditary factors that predispose people to developing mental illnesses would only eliminate a fraction of the problem. Environmental factors play a huge role.

2) The point at which what you describe happens is a long way off (if it ever happens), at least a couple of decades away. In that time, we need a viable solution.

Part of that solution should be better access to mental health care. I don't think there will be any constitutional issues with institutionalized treatment of a child who has threatened to kill someone. AFAIK, a child's parent has considerable legal control over that child and the decision to institutionalize/otherwise treat.

EDIT (reply to below):

> wasn't known to have any violent tendencies
>What were the environmental factors behind Lanza and Holmes (Aurora)? Both came from upper-middle class backgrounds. Both grew up in idyllic environments with "normal" parents with careers and health insurance.

I'm afraid it's simply to early to say these kinds of things. We still do not have a complete picture of Adam Lanza's life. I don't think any of us can say anything about his personality until more facts emerge. A middle class existence is not the end-all be-all of mental stability. There are tons of other factors - family situations, bullying, school environment, the list goes on. And obviously, hereditary factors may very well have played a role in his case.

>Meanwhile, someone without a mental illness has a moment of rage and threatens to kill a guy at a bar. Do we lock him up and drug him too?

This is a straw man. Firstly, I was only talking about the case of children/adolescents whose parents have legal powers over them. In the case of an adult (whose parents obviously have no legal control), the problem is that those adults (incl. the guy who threatens another in your case) will get sent to jail and there won't even be an attempt to diagnose/treat a mental illness even once they are in jail. The guy in your example would not get diagnosed with something he doesn't have. He'll just be in jail. Expansion of access to mental health care should include expanded access to inmates.
You're WAY over-simplifying an intense situation. You think this mother hasn't tried everything by this point? You think you know the simple, magic solution that could possibly reveal this kid to be the next Steve or Bill?

A mother is the LAST person to give up hope. A mother is the LAST person to deny alternatives to a fucking insane asylum and police force.

It's not as simple as shoving an iPad in the kids face. Respect the gravity.
Which way? To the left or to the right?

If you mean which way is the event horizon traveling, it's traveling radially outward. That is a well-defined direction all by itself; there is no "left or right" involved.

The Hairy ball theorem requires it.

If you mean the theorem that says there can't be an everywhere non-vanishing vector field on a sphere, that theorem doesn't apply in this case because the manifold of the black hole spacetime is not a sphere (meaning, topologically it's not a sphere).

Are you somehow claiming that traveling in a straight line away from the black hole leads toward the black hole?

No. I'm saying that inside the horizon, even something that is moving as fast as it can away from the black hole still has a radial coordinate that decreases with time. That's because of the way the spacetime is curved; your intuitions about how "space" works don't work in a region of spacetime that is curved as strongly as the region inside the black hole's horizon.

that would imply there is a point away from the black hole where the gravity of the black hole is exactly balanced

How does it imply this? I don't understand your argument here.
What's the cost of the hosted pro version?
Yep seems to be down
> This is an attack against their Windows customers, not a cost cutting measure.

I really don't think that Google has some weird malicious desire to fuck over Windows customers. I think this is just an effort to get Microsoft to play nicely with internet standards- which is good for everyone.
Sounds like a euphemism
Instituting a mild punishment to a child "WILL GET YOU KILLED"? Really?

This parent is not "insane" for trying to help her own kid, even if that might mean an institution.
Media in English:
http://en.techorange.com/
I didn't realise just how horrible the numbers still are http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html. While Ice Cream Sandwich certainly is catching up, it will probably be 12 months before has a significant market share.

It must be said though that the return 6-month release cycle should help deal with some of the issues, Gingerbread was around as the latest release enough to stagnate. I also don't think Google will ditch the ICS/Holo theming for a while, so ICS should 'age' quite well (not to mention the less then minor changes in the notification window over 4.1 and 4.2 though).
3D Printing Of Electronic Sensors Now Possible With Carbomorph Material
History's Greatest Gadgets
This is great news, especially given the Github Pages integration with Jekyll. Having a programmer-friendly blog platform without the need to worry about hosting/deployment (easy, but another time consumer) is a good thing.

One thing that Jekyll needs to improve is the process for getting a blog up and running quickly. I turned to Octopress for that (being a Jekyll "framework") but I think it's an function Jekyll itself could provide for.
The analogy I'd make is with theologians: carefully teasing apart the meaning of every. single. word. because the payoff is eternal bliss/admission to YC.
"... Windows Phone users can choose to set up IMAP for Gmail, but this won’t support push mail. That renders the connection useless."

This is so incredibly hyperbolic. You still get mail right? Just after a minute instead of "instantly." If you need real-time communication pick up the phone or use a chat client.
Sown,

Normally I wouldn't go off topic like this but I didn't see any way to contact you and I just wanted to tell you that:

a. Don't give up on finding friends. It may seem rough right now but these things have a way of changing over time so just persist and you'll succeed.

b. Lighten up. Smile a little. Instead of thinking crap like "I'm just not fun to be around", take a look about and realize "damn, what an amazing world. I have a rough time getting out and meeting people but when I stay in there are millions of people right here with me, just a few feet and two screens away."

Things'll work out. Don't worry.. :)
This is a terrible idea. I'm sure it's an attractive idea, the childhood you wished you had, but really it sounds like a good way to let your child sink deeper into isolation.
But the CT shooter was never in trouble with the law and wasn't known to have any violent tendencies. And most people are not like the OP blogger: they aren't going to turn in their child to the authorities.

A schizophrenic may not ever have violent tendencies. Then, one day a voice tells them to kill everyone.

Meanwhile, someone without a mental illness has a moment of rage and threatens to kill a guy at a bar. Do we lock him up and drug him too?

What were the environmental factors behind Lanza and Holmes (Aurora)? Both came from upper-middle class backgrounds. Both grew up in idyllic environments with "normal" parents with careers and health insurance.
You haven't thought it through. Try to visualize how such a program would be implemented. You run into intractable problems. One: who defines what traits are undesirable? (Do you imagine this would ever be uncontroversial? Aggression, for example, is needed -- sometimes.) Two: who determines how future behavior is linked to genes; and how is it ever proved that future behavior is only and certainly genetically-based and in no part linked to upbringing? Three: what if a genetic pattern associated with unwanted behavior turns out to be linked with another trait that is desirable (e.g. the subject of this story is both violent and highly intelligent; what if both traits come from the same genes?). Four: by what means do you coerce parents into not breeding? Is deliberate breeding a crime? Punishable by what? Five: what do you do about accidental children? Execute them? And so on. No democracy would ever install such a scheme.
Only provided that both are next posthumously converted to Mormonism.
It doesn't work from the US. We just get a creepy voice that says, "This content is currently unavailable."
Yeah, another interpretation of this (and to be clear: I'm not saying that this is the case; just that it also fits the data we have) is that Microsoft has made the terms of an upcoming license renewal worse now that they have a more reasonable competitor to Gmail, thinking that they can use this to win back some of what are arguably their own customers.
6 x 37 = $222
#justsayin
That doesn't sound consistent with the article at all. I mean, the kid seems to have uncontrolled outbursts which don't sound manipulative to me. I mean, he didn't want to go to the mental hospital but he repeated the behavior he knew would get him there. Perhaps it was a gamble to see if his mom would keep her word, but the way the article is written, it doesn't sound like that.
what is confusing? This quote is awesome.
I have suggested no redefinition. Technical accuracy is one of the aspects of my communication I pay most attention to.
My documents are full of :w, ct. and kkkjjkk --- we are working on adding keybindings. :)

Yes, you can upload .tex and .bib files using the file menu.

Thanks for the feedback!
Maybe, he'll be the next Steve or Bill. Perhaps, he'll be the next Gary Mckinnon.

Or the next Hans Reiser.
1) The hit against English majors was entirely unnecessary.

2) I don't see how experiencing the real world would have gotten him any closer to the answer. HN seems to be a perfectly reasonable forum to ask. There might have been something interesting there.
I'm not sure how you have made such conclusion about author. Actually it looks like you have read up to the sentence ending with "big, big deal" and have not bother to read further. Or I should pretend that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Mumbai_bombings has not happened?

I'm not sure how you are contributing to discussion.
The problem with things like this is that it's doubtful whether this product will be ten times better than the alternatives, which is how much better it needs to be if it wants to displace the entrenched players, which already enjoy some lock-in through 3rd party integration. Simply offering a cheaper and open source alternative or a free alternative that requires somebody to link it up with Dropbox doesn't cut it. There has to be a killer feature, in my opinion.

Your average user will initially shop around for a service, stick with the one they find, and stop then simply stop considering alternatives unless the alternative is simply amazing or all their friends are using it.
Yes, this is certainly planned.

Thanks! :wq
I have two family members that were bipolar. One lived in the US and was diagnosed and treated for decades. She received free care due to Medicaid and Medicare. She was always poor.

Was it the best care? Perhaps not, but at least she could always get it when she acknowledged she needed it.

The other lived in the UK and went undiagnosed for decades. When he finally met his mom and realized he was also bipolar, he had to push the health service doctors hard to accept his diagnosis and finally treat him. He was successful engineer and even owned his own company.

It seems universal care sacrifices everybody's quality. Personally, I think 2 sensible people could sit down and design a better system than either approach.

Good luck with finishing your degree.
So please explain this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Mumbai_bombings ?
If you want to start simple, http://miraclesinyourlife.org covers a basic mantra that has been around a long time.
Great use of Javascript and images at Bmw: Scroll
Thanks, but I already feel sheepish for preaching. Besides, HN is my strategy for never having a blog.
IMAP is quite adequate. It's imperfect, but it's open and it's extensible. The same can't be said of ActiveSync.
I'm afraid we don't have a Chromebook to test on. We do test on Chrome and Linux, though, so hopefully it works well.

Thanks!
> "Maybe, he'll be the next Steve or Bill. Perhaps, he'll be the next Gary Mckinnon."

Or maybe something will trigger him at age 20 and he makes good on his threats.

> "This mom seems to be (insanely)attempting to program a NOT-Normal-Child into a Normal-Child."

Because the "not normal" side of the child is violent, cunningly manipulative, and possibly homicidal. There is a line at which we draw acceptable behavior - homicidal and violent intent seems pretty liberal.

This is not a typical aspie we're talking about. When a child has demonstrable, repeated, unpredictable, and extremely violent tendencies we can't just lock them in a room with a terminal and hope everything turns out ok.
>Google doesn't want us on their service.

it's not that google doesn't want you, it's that google doesn't care about you. windows phone users are not a significant market share for anybody. nobody is going to go out of their way to do anything special for something with 2% market share (and if my server logs are any indication, more like 0.2% usage share)
You're not understanding me correctly. I'm not saying it will be a government mandate or coercion of any kind. I'm saying cultural attitudes will change on their own as "genetic awareness" becomes more mainstream.

I'm making predictions about the future here and you are looking through modern day eyes. Twenty years ago people would be appalled to see the kind of things we openly share on Facebook with our friends today. In the future people may have no qualms about sharing their genetic profiles. There very well may be an eHarmony type service that matches based on potential offspring rather than answers to a questionnaire.
This is a very confused comment. Parents make these kinds of choices all the time, albeit on much coarser grounds (bring the down syndrome baby to term, or not?). If we started doing finer-grained genetic screening, clearly the choice would be the parents, and the question of "accidental children" doesn't even make sense: by default, the kids we make will be 'accidental' just more thoroughly, optionally, screened.
I'm extremely skeptical of any claim that Newtonian physics is "wrong." Perhaps incomplete.
Google has also said they are not going to support Win8 at all.

And Google knows IMAP is pathetic as a replacement for mail.

If Google built a full fidelity open platform for Gmail and YouTube APIs then maybe I'd believe you. But as it stands today Google only believes in open standards when they aren't in a strong market position.
Can country with two big religions be secular democracy?
Huawei v. ZTE: Chinese LTE patent spat in Germany over base stations, USB modems
Why are you saying this? The author looked very appreciative of Indian democracy.
>What were the environmental factors behind Lanza and Holmes (Aurora)? Both came from upper-middle class backgrounds. Both grew up in idyllic environments with "normal" parents with careers and health insurance.

This is, of course, the crux of the matter. Clearly there is something in America's environment that makes us far more prone to this sort of thing than other places, with or without gun control. Identifying what that is will be critical to preventing this from happening again. Gun control can reduce the body count, but even a body count of one (suicide) is not acceptable. The silver lining to this is that these events raise a dramatic warning to us that there is something deeply, seriously wrong with our culture.
Google Vs. Apple Maps – Which One To Opt For?
Indian intelligence failed to stop them. This is nothing to do with being democracy or not. There is 9/11 in USA too.
6 months ago I had no damn idea what was bootstrap. Neither did my neighbour. Now I know what it is, and with this short, pragmatic article, I have a few pointers on how I could make something 'decent' to my neighbour although I have 0 skills in graphic design.

And my neighbour still has no damn clue what is Bootstrap, so whatever if it still 'looks like Bootstrap'. The audience doesn't care.

Nice submission, if you ask me.
I think this relies on an overestimation of the planning and foresight that goes into most pregnancies. About half of US pregnancies are unplanned, and it certainly seems like there are large segments of the population for whom even relatively short-term risks, like the propensity of the father to cheat--or never be involved at all--are basically ignored when choosing a mate.
Couldn't they have picked stuff at least slightly resembled what's in the movie...?
In Praise of Complaining - Chris McDonough
That seems like the most humane way to go. I don't see anyone else in this thread doing anything more than throwing their hands up in the air saying that it's a problem too difficult to solve, including you. So, rather than poo-poo my ideas, how about offering up your own?
A theory must either pass every empirical test that is thrown at it, or be flatly rejected.

Well, that's how reality actually works. Statements about reality are either true or false. How many physicists would even agree with that? Therein lies my distrust of modern physics, or at least part of it.

I'm no fan of Popper, though.

The history of science (Kuhn, etc) shows that this is just not how it works.

I'm no fan of Kuhn either, though. He also probably wouldn't agree with my litmus test of "Statements about reality are either true or false."
Full link to paper is here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13546783.2011.62...

If you want to do the MEQ (morningness/eveningness) questionnaire they gave to their students, a copy is here:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/10/6/2131219/ModifiedMEQ-S...

As a self-identified evening person, usually I reserve mornings for phone calls, emails and banging out TODO list (e.g. acting on decisions already made).

If I'm to believe this study, I should perhaps try more "big picture" thinking in the mornings rather than at midnight...