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Ask HN: Teach me something new

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Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#331

Post by stavros »

CGamesPlay wrote: post #219
mikelevins wrote: post #28

I've described this on HN before; forgive me if you've already seen it. I have chronic migraine. It sounds worse than it is; I rarely suffer attacks anymore, and when I do, they're usually mostly harmless, as in the case I'll describe below. Contrary to popular belief, migraine is not a headache. It's something a little more like an epileptic seizure. Intense headaches are one common symptom, but there are a lot of o…

Interesting. I get these scotomas about every 6 months or so, usually lasting for 30 or so minutes. I was told they were called "ocular migraines", and a cursory glance over the internet doesn't seem to help me differentiate between the two, although I will say that [0] is a very accurate depiction of how it looks when it happens to me. I normally just take a break from whatever I'm doing and go for a walk. The first…

I get these at my center of vision when I focus close (less than half a meter) for a few minutes. They're annoying because I can't do work that requires me to look very close for too long, but seem to have no other symptom, and no doctor has figured out what they are.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#332

Post by dssagar93 »

b0ner_t0ner wrote: post #280

Humans might just be the stupidest animals on the planet when it comes to seasonal migration, we get tied down by our monetary system, taxes, government policies, borders, etc., while polluting our planet with patchwork solutions like air conditioning for the summer or burning fossil fuels to heat our surroundings in the winter. We can't simply just "move" to a different location like other animals.

This is something that I have never thought of. Intriguing.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#333

Post by dssagar93 »

DavidSJ wrote: post #308
b0ner_t0ner wrote: post #280

Humans might just be the stupidest animals on the planet when it comes to seasonal migration, we get tied down by our monetary system, taxes, government policies, borders, etc., while polluting our planet with patchwork solutions like air conditioning for the summer or burning fossil fuels to heat our surroundings in the winter. We can't simply just "move" to a different location like other animals.

I think it's the opposite. We can move, but we have the intelligence to tame our environment so we don't have to.

Taming the environment is proving to be bad, isn't it?

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#334

Post by someweirdperson »

pxeger1 wrote: post #145

Double-clicking on text selects the whole word. Double-clicking and dragging selects text word-by-word. Triple-clicking selects the whole paragraph. Middle-clicking a link opens it in a new tab. Middle-clicking a tab closes it. Middle-clicking in general often has useful functionality!

When holding the last click of the sequence multiple words/paragraphs can be selected. In some editors quad-click selects all.

In code-editors tripple selects a line (hold to select multiple). When moving/deleting lines this is much more semantically clean (and faster) than manually dragging from the previous line's line end to the next lines last character before the line end.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#335

Post by stavros »

mikelevins wrote: post #48
krasotkin wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have experienced this several times and almost never have a headache. I definitely can't read what's beyond/obscured by the scotoma. The first time it happened was during a test in high school and the splotch grew until I was forced to read the questions in my peripheral. I have an anecdote that corroborates your observation that cognitive experiences are more complicated then assumed: I was once very, very sleep d…

One of the other weird things I referred to is best described as discovering that I could be awake and asleep at the same time. I think it might be another case of our naive ideas about cognitive processes being a little oversimplified. It sounds like nonsense, of course, but that's because we naively assume that sleep and wakefulness are opposites--that they are mutually exclusive. What if we're wrong about that? Wh…

I've been awake while asleep too, that's what sleep paralysis is. Sounds like it was a bit different for you, in that you didn't wake up to it, but it sounds like the same experience otherwise.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#336

Post by iamacyborg »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #212

What we call “free will” consists of a multitude of forces we have no control over. Look at your choices and try to find an independent entity making a decision. You will likely notice your conditioning and preferences, beliefs, emotions, thoughts, physiological and psychological state in the moment, your environment, habits, trauma patterns, all collaborating toward one thing or another. “Free will” is a shortcut fo…

It thinks therefore I am

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#337

Post by yobbo »

schoen wrote: post #132

In the 1800s, scholars who knew a lot of languages (including, often, several modern and ancient European languages, and increasingly also Sanskrit) started to notice some amazing patterns about similarities in words among all of these languages, including languages from very far apart and that had no visible connection at all from the point of view of their present-day speakers. As these patterns were explored, they…

The swedish/scandinavian word for human "människa" has three syllables (norwegian "menneske" sounds more like two syllables) as opposed to german "mensch". It sounds suspiciously similar to the sanskrit word "manusha" which apparently also means human.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#338

Post by DavidSJ »

dssagar93 wrote: post #333
DavidSJ wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the opposite. We can move, but we have the intelligence to tame our environment so we don't have to.

Taming the environment is proving to be bad, isn't it?

It has pros and cons, but I think civilization is a massive pro that outweighs all the cons.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#339

Post by cyber_gekko »

A Gaeltacht (Gale-tuct) is a region of Ireland that is designated by the government as Irish speaking. There are a few of these areas, mainly along the coast, where the majority of people will conduct their daily affairs through Irish (although they're mostly happy to speak English to you if they notice you have no idea what they're saying!).

Back in the 00's an Irish heritage group in Canada bought a chunk of land in Ontario and managed to get it designated as a Gaeltacht.

So officially, as of today, Irish is the common vernacular in several small-ish regions of Ireland and a .25km^2 chunk of Canada.

Bit more info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_North_American_Gae...

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#340

Post by agumonkey »

schoen wrote: post #132

In the 1800s, scholars who knew a lot of languages (including, often, several modern and ancient European languages, and increasingly also Sanskrit) started to notice some amazing patterns about similarities in words among all of these languages, including languages from very far apart and that had no visible connection at all from the point of view of their present-day speakers. As these patterns were explored, they…

I laughed thinking about British empire teaching english to indians who they inherited most the language from.

etymonline.com is a nice way to rabbithole time away with fun

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