111–120 of 191 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes. Alibaba is indirectly responsible for many containerloads of goods traveling from the east to the west.
How do people handle QC issues with Alibaba orders? I dipped my toe in when ordering a crate of allegedly "CE marked" chargers that turned out to be obviously unsafe, and haven't been back.
Not in petrochemicals, but neither is this is this reporter. I get it, it's supposed to be a joke, but it's such a poorly executed one fraught with so many major components glossed over that it detracts from any humor the article could have had. When the Onion writes something, it's humor is wonderful because not only the wit is there but there are few if any inconsistencies even for pedants who dissect things such a…
You are confusing HN with Reddit. HN never had such a policy, nor any, for that matter.
pg specifically said before handing over the site that he didn't mind downvoting to disagree. I have seen no movement from new leadership on this; in fact, new leadership have doubled down on some of pg's worse calls. With the graying out of comments added in to the downvote encouragement, effectively that situation encourages you to only offer uncontroversial opinion lest your thoughts become invisible and silenced. It's not a heavy thought exercise to see where allegations of groupthink come from.
That, along with the fact that my account was marked as an instantly-penalized troublemaker at some point and I only found out by emailing many months later even though my email was in my profile all along, is one of the reasons I no longer contribute here. That was a startling discovery, that individuals get marked as troublemakers based upon the opinion of a moderator and, in my case, a single comment. Think about that for a second, and think about all the comments you've ever made, and the fact that HN usernames are part of the YC application process. A lot clicked for me once I stepped back and thought about it.
As I said, don't confuse HN with Reddit. The leadership of Hacker News has a large amount of zeal and actively steers conversation toward arbitrary positivity and civility, including moderation decisions you would find questionable anywhere else. Before appealing to decency and policy when a comment gets downvotes as you have, just remember that. The irony is that HN loves to mock Reddit, but in many ways it is three times the community HN is.
And please don't complain about downvotes. That is specifically discussed here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
and then there's FOOF https://web.archive.org/web/20150825171826/http://pipeline.c... (Webarchive since original seems down)
"If the paper weren’t laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you’d swear it was the work of a violent lunatic." I've seen this article before, but I will never get tired of reading it again.
The FOOF article pointed out one other nasty problem, namely, how easy it is to game search systems:
"But I do note that if you run the structure through SciFinder, it comes out with a most unexpected icon that indicates a commercial supplier. That would be the Hangzhou Sage Chemical Company. They offer it in 100g, 500g, and 1 kilo amounts, which is interesting, because I don’t think a kilo of dioxygen difluoride has ever existed. Someone should call them on this – ask for the free shipping, and if they object, tell them Amazon offers it on this item. Serves ’em right. Morons."
Given how often I come across spammy search results in Google, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The fire chief entered the cistern wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus. After reaching the plank platform, he removed his face mask to shout instructions to those on the surface and he, too, was instantly overcome. Now that one is probably deserving a Darwin Award...
Says the guy arm-chairing the situation on HN. In contrast to anyone that's actually done such a thing, reads this and thinks, "yeah, but for the grace of $DEITY go I, because a single lapse in judgement is all it takes, and in a stressful situation single lapses in judgement come in boxes of a dozen."
Planet Money had a recent podcast titled "The Onion King", where someone took physical control of onion futures, and why that is the one type of future outlawed by congress. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/10/14/448718171/episo...
"7 U.S. Code § 13–1 - Violations, prohibition against dealings in motion picture box office receipts or onion futures; punishment
(a) No contract for the sale of motion picture box office receipts (or any index, measure, value, or data related to such receipts) or onions for future delivery shall be made on or subject to the rules of any board of trade in the United States. The terms used in this section shall have the same meaning as when used in this chapter. (b) Any person who shall violate the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof be fined not more than $5,000."
Another notable excerpt from the linked state safety agency document ( http://www.michigan.gov/documents/cis_wsh_cet5041_90142_7.do... ): -- Two employees of a fertilizer company in Riga, Michigan, were assigned to install a new float valve in an old 35-foot deep cistern for a new 300-foot well. This cistern was covered with a concrete slab with entry through a covered manhole. The first worker entered the cistern an…
Shit kills. I guess this happens everywhere in the world, but over here (Finland), there are the occasional deaths at farms where H2S released from remains of cow manure, stored in a tank, kills people. https://www.mela.fi/sites/default/files/lietelanta.pdf "Description of event A farm-owner suffocated inside a manure tank which was lacking oxygen and contained toxic gases. Also his brother, who went in to help, died…
"The lagoons themselves are so viscous and venomous that if someone falls in it is foolish to try to save him. A few years ago, a truck driver in Oklahoma was transferring pig shit to a lagoon when he and his truck went over the side. It took almost three weeks to recover his body. In 1992, when a worker making repairs to a lagoon in Minnesota began to choke to death on the fumes, another worker dived in after him, and they died the same death. In another instance, a worker who was repairing a lagoon in Michigan was overcome by the fumes and fell in. His fifteen-year-old nephew dived in to save him but was overcome, the worker's cousin went in to save the teenager but was overcome, the worker's older brother dived in to save them but was overcome, and then the worker's father dived in. They all died in pig shit."
Tough way to go.
From this excellent, long-form piece on Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/boss-hog-the-dark-s...
Enterprising Child Saves $54 To Buy Barrel Of Oil
> ... playing host to a herd of feral cats. A group of cats is called a clowder... or a glaring :)
Most of the collective nouns were made up in the 15th century anyway, and very few have caught on. (Evidence: the article.)
> ... playing host to a herd of feral cats. A group of cats is called a clowder... or a glaring :)
Or a herd. English is flexible. Most of the collective nouns were made up in the 15th century anyway, and very few have caught on. (Evidence: the article.)
Another notable excerpt from the linked state safety agency document ( http://www.michigan.gov/documents/cis_wsh_cet5041_90142_7.do... ): -- Two employees of a fertilizer company in Riga, Michigan, were assigned to install a new float valve in an old 35-foot deep cistern for a new 300-foot well. This cistern was covered with a concrete slab with entry through a covered manhole. The first worker entered the cistern an…
Shit kills. I guess this happens everywhere in the world, but over here (Finland), there are the occasional deaths at farms where H2S released from remains of cow manure, stored in a tank, kills people. https://www.mela.fi/sites/default/files/lietelanta.pdf "Description of event A farm-owner suffocated inside a manure tank which was lacking oxygen and contained toxic gases. Also his brother, who went in to help, died…
After that, was lessons about watching for risks of fire and knowing where to GTFO.
I don't remember any at-the-time recent issues with asphyxiation and there were well known cases of barn fires every 5-8 years (we were replacing one that burnt down the year before). Still, the bigger warning I remember was about safety near manure.