Can you please, pretty please, add an RSS feed?
Show HN: Not Depressing News
111–120 of 176 posts
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For instance, saying "it's not without issues" usually means something different from "it has issues". Interesting that you go on to say that "it's not without issues" is milder than "it has issues". To me it's the opposite, like a short form of "Is it without issues? No way!" I guess it depends on context and, particularly, how much sarcasm can be detected in the tone of voice (if said out loud). > In this particu…
Yeah, the change of meaning is often very subtle, and people can sometimes disagree on the direction of the change. Usually though, the device is used to express a kind of understatement. Compare these statements: He's not bad looking He's good looking Which one would you say is stronger? I think most people would say that the affirmative "He's good looking" is stronger than the first version. Another example: It's n…
"Which one would you say is stronger?"
I would go for "He's not bad looking" being stronger - but then again I'm from the UK :-)
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your username implies that you're from the UK. Isn't this a well-known cultural difference between British and... just about any other culture? I know we Dutch people get caught by that quite often. (Funny enough, in the Groningen region the expression "kon minder" ("could be worse") is often used as high praise. Whatever it applies to is implied to be fantastic, almost perfect, in a "but don't get cocky about it" ki…
You're right. Actually, I remember a story [1] of a British army commander asking his American superior (on a UN mission) for help by saying "Things are a bit sticky, sir". Unfortunately this was taken to mean that everything was fine, so no reinforcements were sent. I understand that the Dutch are very much at the other end of the spectrum - very direct and straightforward. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/ap…
Honestly, after living abroad for five years in total (with one year back in the Netherlands inbetween), that "direct and straightforward" part feels like it has been co-opted as an excuse to not bother with looking at things from the point of view of someone else and reaching out.
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#114There are many interesting questions around this.
Is the purpose of news to manipulate your mood?
If that is the case it competes with video games, sports, fiction, etc.
Is the purpose of news to inform?
In that case "current events" competes with an understanding of past events.
I was listening to an evangelical preacher the other day about the book "Romans" written by my namesake and how the apostles are getting their asses kicked in roman jails and preaching with anger against immorality (beyond the pale today in the west) such as polygamy and slavery.
Then I was reading about how the Polish and Japanese both learned how to write at the same time in the same way. I felt the dread hanging over Arlington National Memorial and was shocked to discover who had owned the land it was on.
This 1971 book
https://www.amazon.com/Information-Machines-Ben-H-Bagdikian/...
predicted that we would have "news on the web" in the 1980s and has a much deeper analysis of that entails than most books written since.
He sees a fundamental problem in "news" that the gatekeeper function has to be done efficiently and quickly. Of all the things that happened today, the "news" is one in a billion or so.
That selection is necessary to create a feeling of shared reality. (I saw CNN at 5:14 and my Uncle Nic saw it at 7:31 and we saw "the same thing")
That selection is also violence against reality itself.
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#115The design needs some work for desktop, plz
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#116No offence to the developer, but isn't this like propaganda? I mean you're not just choosing to only see the best in world, but you're letting someone else define what is the best (or not depressing). Just seems a little weird to me...
That's the case with any newspaper though, isn't it? We should always cross-check and verify, listen to multiple opinions and look at a variety of sources if possible.
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#117No offence to the developer, but isn't this like propaganda? I mean you're not just choosing to only see the best in world, but you're letting someone else define what is the best (or not depressing). Just seems a little weird to me...
Just seems a little weird to me...
Isn't this how most curated sources of information, from newspapers to scientific journals, work?
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#118No offence to the developer, but isn't this like propaganda? I mean you're not just choosing to only see the best in world, but you're letting someone else define what is the best (or not depressing). Just seems a little weird to me...
Just seems a little weird to me... Isn't this how most curated sources of information, from newspapers to scientific journals, work?
True, I guess this source is a least transparent about what kind of content they are promoting
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#119From time to time there tends to arise a demand for news that are not "bad" or depressing or paints the world in a somber palette. However, I'm often reminded of this quote by George Orwell: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.” Perhaps news are inherently skewed towards the negative side, and that's the way it should be.
Orwell didn't anticipate the infotainment industrial complex. Marshall McLuhan correctly recognized that overstimulation, the outrage machine, shuts down critical thought. What McLuhan calls "auto-amputation".
Aldous Huxley did however, cf Brave new world
Re: Show HN: Not Depressing News
#120No offence to the developer, but isn't this like propaganda? I mean you're not just choosing to only see the best in world, but you're letting someone else define what is the best (or not depressing). Just seems a little weird to me...
That's the case with any newspaper though, isn't it? We should always cross-check and verify, listen to multiple opinions and look at a variety of sources if possible.
The main purpose of newspapers used to be exactly an opposite. You choose the particular newspaper, by editorial board views closest to yours, and just get an information. You don't have to cross-check everything - that's what you pay for subscribing to newspaper. You outsource the job to the editors.