Live data from Hacker News

Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

atlasobscura.com

21–30 of 34 posts

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if pointing to one of the many bitcoin/blockchain/ico submissions is a great example of an article being flagged unfairly. I can easily imagine there are people on the site who feel there are already plenty of such submissions every day with the same discussions rehashed over and over. I don't know why this particular submission was flagged but to come up with a plausible explanation for the one you link…

Did you read it? It's thorough and substantive. Yes, it involves Bitcoin, but why equate topic fatigue with flagworthiness?

I'm not saying it's justified, I'm just saying I can imagine members doing it. Once saturation is reached, it's understandable that people aren't going to take the time to vet each submission as closely, even if we wish they would. And again, if the same discussion is played out over and over, even if it's a well-written and substantive piece, it's not necessarily a good submission for HN. And with respect to stimulating intellectual curiosity, yes, fatigue can be a reasonable proxy for flag-worthiness.

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. More and more good articles are being flagged unfairly: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15991851 We don't have a vouch button to counter bad flags.

I don't know if pointing to one of the many bitcoin/blockchain/ico submissions is a great example of an article being flagged unfairly. I can easily imagine there are people on the site who feel there are already plenty of such submissions every day with the same discussions rehashed over and over. I don't know why this particular submission was flagged but to come up with a plausible explanation for the one you link…

I'm utterly bored of Bitcoin too, but if people are flagging HN-relevant articles just because they're not personally interested in the subject, that's a big problem.

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#23
post #10

I'm a bit confused. The article says that archaeologists thought that pre-Iron Age iron use came from isolated early development of iron ore smelting, because archaeologists did not believe Bronze Age people understood that meteorites were rocks that fell from the sky. So what? Iron meteorites differ from "normal" Earth rocks in several ways visually and they are denser [1]. All a Bonze Age group would need to learn…

I suspect the article isn't very well organized. The researcher is quoted further down:

“Some archaeologists were skeptical, as they thought that the amount of nickel found in Bronze Age iron tools was too low to consider them of meteoritic origin,” he says. “But I’m a trained cosmochemist, so I knew the problem was just corrosion. And I was able to show—partly thanks to Morasko meteorite data—that nickel was leached away during corrosion.”

So there were probably multiple issues.

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#24
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read it? It's thorough and substantive. Yes, it involves Bitcoin, but why equate topic fatigue with flagworthiness?

I'm not saying it's justified, I'm just saying I can imagine members doing it. Once saturation is reached, it's understandable that people aren't going to take the time to vet each submission as closely, even if we wish they would. And again, if the same discussion is played out over and over, even if it's a well-written and substantive piece, it's not necessarily a good submission for HN. And with respect to stimula…

It's not the same discussion. The article is about a potential 51% attack against BCH, which as far as I know no one else is talking about.

It's kind of strange to say it's understandable and therefore ok. Trolling is understandable too, but it's still against the rules.

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#25
post #4

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/peop... The history of Arctic peoples working extraterrestrial iron.

I don't see why you're downvoted.

It's true arctic peoples used found iron which came from meteorites. Another item rare in the arctic and even more useful than iron was wood. Driftwood was prized for building since trees don't exist above the arctic circle.

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#26
Would be neat if early humans became infected with an Andromeda strain-like bacteria from inhaling meteorite dust. Maybe from the same source that seeded life on earth originally.

After the alien bacteria took up residence in the human gut, it enhanced the human brain, creating the modern human.

Andromeda Strain 50,000 B.C. (2019)

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#28
post #26

Would be neat if early humans became infected with an Andromeda strain-like bacteria from inhaling meteorite dust. Maybe from the same source that seeded life on earth originally. After the alien bacteria took up residence in the human gut, it enhanced the human brain, creating the modern human. Andromeda Strain 50,000 B.C. (2019)

Great movie (1971). Saw for first time when I was about 8 and it freaked me out then and still does to this day. Did not see the remake.

Re: Before the Iron Age, Most Iron Came from Space

#30
post #26

Would be neat if early humans became infected with an Andromeda strain-like bacteria from inhaling meteorite dust. Maybe from the same source that seeded life on earth originally. After the alien bacteria took up residence in the human gut, it enhanced the human brain, creating the modern human. Andromeda Strain 50,000 B.C. (2019)

Great movie (1971). Saw for first time when I was about 8 and it freaked me out then and still does to this day. Did not see the remake.

601 SYSTEM OVERLOAD makes for an excellent HTTP extension error code on bloated mobile web pages.
Post reply on HN