Hacker News Reader

bernie_simonon Covid: Remdesivir 'has little or no effect' on survival, says WHO

There's a well known pattern that studies conducted by a drug company are more likely to report positive results than studies conducted by a neutral party.

bernie_simonon Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

I'm old enough to remember the Vietnam War and the AFL-CIO of the day was staunchly anti-communist and pro-war. Most of the opposition to the war before Nixon became president came from the pacifist left and student led organizations like the SDS.

bernie_simonon Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

Read the biographies of people you admire.

bernie_simonon Conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines may prevent herd immunity

Before we start worrying about herd immunity, we need to show that the vaccines for covid-19 prevent transmission of the virus as well as prevent or mitigate the symptoms of covid-19. It is not always the case that an effective vaccine prevents transmission of the disease.

bernie_simonon Auden on No-Platforming Pound (2019)

A number of people have been fired from their jobs because of the cancel culture. It's that "de-platforming" that most concerns me.

While people have the right of free association, that right needs to be exercised responsibly. Is refusing to work with a man who apposes gay marriage is responsible? How about refusing to work with a Trump supporter, or evangelical Christian?

bernie_simonon Why I started GigoBooks, and how I got the idea for a startup

"Gigo" also is an acronym for "garbage in, garbage out." So you may want to rethink your name.

bernie_simonon Glucosamine Supplementation Reduces All-Cause Mortality: Study

"The UK Biobank used a baseline touch screen questionnaire to assess several potential confounders: sociodemographic characteristics (age, sex, ethnicity, Townsend Deprivation Index, education and average total annual household income), lifestyle behaviours (smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index (BMI) and vegetable and fruit consumption), health conditions (CVD (myocardial infarction, angina or stroke), respiratory disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or emphysema), cancer, digestive disease (liver failure, cirrhosis or alcoholic liver disease), dementia, depression, longstanding illness, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol), drug use (chondroitin, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use), vitamin supplementation (vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, multivitamin and folic acid) and mineral and other dietary supplementation (calcium, iron, zinc, selenium and fish oil)). "

bernie_simonon The explosion of new coronavirus tests that could help to end the pandemic

Wikipedia says Jenner first demonstrated the smallpox vaccine in 1796. The revolutionary war ended in 1783.