Hacker News Reader

hattaron Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

Interesting hypothesis, is it based on anything specific? I think refined/added sugars in general are probably something best avoided, but admittedly still eat plenty. The idea that one sugar is materially worse than another feels off, but I can't quite put my finger on why.

hattaron Facebook to stop targeting ads at UK woman after legal fight

uBO with the following custom filter fixed Reddit for me:

||reddit.com^$document @@||reddit.com/r/*/comments/$document

It allows me to look at individual posts which lets me search and view specific answers, but blocks the lists of posts. I get the benefit of Reddit without getting sucked into the time wasting feed.

hattaron Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2007.185...

hattaron Show HN: I made a mini golf in my lunch time

I just got 13 rolls of 3 in a row. I think there may be an issue with the RNG

hattaron US city-country mortality gap widens

> 1. Remove state income tax outside of cities >100k people

Every wealthy person (and less wealthy people including myself) would immediately set up (and leave empty to rot) a new primary residence for tax purposes. The cost of 1/4 acre in the middle of nowhere is less than a single year of income tax.

> 2. Add high import tariffs on all goods

...spiking prices for everyone due to reduced supply, inevitable retaliatory tariffs, and general market inefficiencies.

> 3. Waive property taxes for farms & factories in towns <25k people

...is this on top of the substantial tax subsidies farms and factories already receive?

> 4. Move federal spending from military to infrastructure such as rail, roads & internet.

I can get behind this one.

> 5. Stop all forms of immigration for 8 years

Including the currently illegal forms of immigration that currently support the vast majority of our agricultural output? I was talking to a farm owner in North Carolina a couple months ago and he was complaining how hard it has become to get seasonal labor because nobody wants to work this type of job. You can raise pay rates, but it'll still be tough. This wouldn't bump rural areas, it would kill whatever remaining businesses are left.

hattaron Via ferratas are finally catching on in the United States

Let them spend a weekend in the woods then. There’s no reason to spoil a very rare commodity so that someone with no experience or appreciation can make use of it. There are many, many “close enough” experiences, and very few that haven’t been tainted by improper use. We should preserve these priceless spots, not sacrifice them to the lowest common denominator.

hattaron Why it's impossible to agree on what's allowed

> right to privacy

In a public park?

> So are cop cars allowed

No, but a thing about rules is that they generally only work if there’s someone who is able and willing to enforce them.

hattaron Crash tests show nation's guardrail system can't handle heavy electric vehicles

Right thought, but I suspect wrong reason.

You’ve been competing with “light” trucks on the roads for a couple decades that weigh the same or more than your average Tesla. Factor in that they have worse driver visibility, higher bumper height, and make up about 20% of the vehicles on the road and you have a much more concerning threat.

hattaron Spotube: Open-source Spotify-Youtube client

I pay and would still like an alternative client. The official one has several annoying deficiencies that are unlikely to ever be addressed.

From a monetary standpoint, most companies would throw me into a wood chipper were it profitable. Hard to feel any sense of “fair behavior” is warranted when that’s the case.

hattaron My New Apartment's Most Aggravating Feature

I would guess about 23 years ago for this person

hattaron Bad NEWS, Emacs

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38591788

This person seems to explain it well

hattaron You Are Atlas, You Hold Up the Sky

> the most embarrassing bug of my career

Though to be honest, if that’s the most embarrassing bug abra0 is doing great.

hattaron Bluesky now checks against this array of slurs when creating a username

It took me almost a full minute to figure out what this is supposed to be.

I think it’s “SoyBoy” for anyone clueless as me.

hattaron LED lights are meant to save energy. They’re creating glaring problems

What an I supposed to be seeing?

hattaron Terrible real estate agent photographs

That’s actually very close to the excuse they gave! It’s my opinion that if an inspector can’t identify the absence of a critical and primary component of a home, they don’t really provide much value.

hattaron Terrible real estate agent photographs

Colorado here and that wasn't the case for me.

There were many, and varied things missed in my inspection. The biggest was the entire HVAC system being messed up. The furnace was incorrectly installed, improperly sized for the house, and didn't even have any return ductwork installed.

The air flow seemed really bad in the bedroom and so one day I decided to climb up into the attic and take a look. The problem with the return air missing was immediately obvious. When I called the inspector to ask why they'd miss something so obvious I was given an excuse and pointed toward the part of the contract that states they're not liable. I eventually got them to refund the cost of the inspection, but it was hundreds of dollars back for over ten thousand dollars in missed issues. I was only able to get anything because I worked for a real estate company at the time and knew the right people who could apply pressure.

IMO Home inspections are a total scam.

hattaron Airbnb rental revenues have plunged in some parts of the US, this chart suggests

Interesting. I travel mainly in the US and of the approximately 10 visits I can’t remember an instance where I didn’t pay a cleaning fee while also dealing with a chore list.

It’s pretty sharp in my mind because it always frustrates me so much.

hattaron Promoting public transit with modern pricing schemes

The article indicates that dropping the price failed to reduce transport by car, but Denver did an experiment in 2022 in which fares were entirely dropped and according to reports cited in this Denver Post article, the experiment reduced nitrogen dioxide pollution by more than 7%.

https://www.denverpost.com/2023/05/31/rtd-free-fares-ozone-y...

Honestly it's better than I'd expected as my personal reason for avoiding public transit in Denver isn't cost, it's inconvenience and massively increased travel time. I'm inclined to say adding cost complexity would do more to discourage ridership than increase it.

hattaron The forced return to the office is the definition of insanity

What I meant to say was, you're already saving them money by not going in. You're saving them the cost of office space, parking, etc.

And then as you've pointed out, on top of all that they're paying you less.

hattaron How to fix a forward head posture

Just a heads up for anyone like me who watches this video: The first 1:30 is a pedantic rant, but it’s actually really interesting once he gets to the point.

Basically, his claim is that forward head posture is actually spinal curvature combined with a compensating upward tilt in the neck. The result is that the exercises described in the OP would be unhelpful and potentially harmful.

hattaron MS Teams is down

It may be a poorly written piece of software, but unfortunately it gets used quite a bit.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1033742/worldwide-micros...

hattaron The forced return to the office is the definition of insanity

At likely negative cost to the company.

hattaron Can You Change Your Metabolism?

While I believe this to be technically correct, this approach to diet and weight is like saying “poor people just need to make more money, or spend less”. It misses a lot of important nuance.

I would recommend you check out a book called” The Hungry Brain“ by Stephan Guyenet. It changed my perspective on this topic and made me much more empathetic to people who struggle with weight issues.

hattaron Going NoPhone

I looked into this, more as a curiosity. The thing that killed it for me is the battery life. Unless your usage is already very low, I expect you'd end up charging it more than once a day which for me was prohibitive.

hattaron How to hire a pop star for your private party

Wait, are you just suggesting this as a hypothetical, or is this a real thing people do?

hattaron Large-scale study reveals autoimmune disorders now affect around one in ten

Spondylitis? I’m curious mostly because I received a similar story and diagnosis, but over the last 5-10 years have had multiple doctors second guess what may be affecting me.

hattaron Why does a plastic-wrapped turkey sandwich cost $15 at the NYC airport?

Roughly 10x as many as are standing around doing nothing now. Take a look at security from the raised view provided at Denver International. You’ll see at any given time roughly 1/2 the agents standing around chatting with one another.

hattaron Hospitals are reporting new mothers for neglect from poppyseed false positives

Interestingly, both could apply here.

hattaron Two research teams reverse signs of aging in mice

One must pick their battles in order to win a war.

hattaron Non-replaceable battery? Not if this proposed EU law passes

If the device degrades to the point where it’s effectively useless for my primary use case, I’m not really saving money. Useful timeline needs to be accounted for when considering cost effectiveness.