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Comment by dogma1138 | Hacker News Reader

Every time i check the most viewed videos on YouTube i get depressed and lose all faith in humanity. Landing on a comet gets you 250K views, anouncing the discovery of the higgs gets you less than 100K, latest twerking video or PewDiePie 2M at least...

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Have you considered that the repeat viewing value of the Higgs boson announcement diminishes rapidly?

Not sure why the pessimistic poster is being downvoted. Factoring for repeat viewers, it is sad how little society values scientific achievements. That said, I was up in the wee hours of the morning watching the LHSC start up and probably put more than 20 views on that song. Have ye hope :D

One is little news report about recent scientific finding (that you don't even need to watch since there are tons of other better sources of that) with viral entertainment video, which is specifically made to get as many viewers as possible. These are not of the same type to be compared.

Scientific achievements don't necessarily make for entertaining video content. I'm sure most people would rather read about most scientific achievements (which these days are largely invisible or theoretical) than read a literary translation of Gangnam Style, too.

> Factoring for repeat viewers

And you're doing this... how, exactly?

Humor and music are basic human social functions -- even children understand them. Quantum physics, not so much.

You mean you're sad that the majority of people on earth don't know or care about higgs boson? That's a weird thing to be sad about.

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