81–90 of 177 posts
This story gave me a weird feeling and reminded me of the Dodo ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo ). This animal was extincted by man only 83 years of it was discovered. I am glad we have will/technology enough today to try to repair this kind of mistakes.
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Every time I see someone ask, "does this belong on HN", I think exactly that. Obviously it was interesting enough for 200+ people, so if it's not interesting to you as an individual then you can move to the next article. It astonishes me how many people seem to think it's News instead of Hacker News.
That's wrong too though: if I get 1000 people who love professional cycling news to sign up to HN and start upvoting articles about Alberto Contador, that doesn't mean it's on topic.
This is a fascinating story, but I must ask - does this belong on hacker news? Please, I ask with no intended malice.
I enjoy reading two-three non "hacker" topics every day and having it discussed with this community, instead of say reddit. Since this community is closer to my mindset. Saying that, i see that this kind of exploration with rewards like a previous thought extinct specimens is a "hack" of nature, it was an investment, a climb to the top and a reward :) . Therefore it is hacker news.
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Judging by the 200+ up votes, yes. Plus, the aforementioned hacker news guidelines: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Every time I see someone ask, "does this belong on HN", I think exactly that. Obviously it was interesting enough for 200+ people, so if it's not interesting to you as an individual then you can move to the next article. It astonishes me how many people seem to think it's News instead of Hacker News.
That's an awesome story! Initially I didn't like the genetic bottleneck created by just having one pair (i.e. that they should go back and get more now that they know how to care for them, perhaps as a swap) - but then I realized the original source on the island was probably a single individual, so they are all probably virtually clones anyway. Once they have enough they should sell some - tons of people would be de…
That's probably a problem when trying to save any endangered species. Given the challenges (and time investment) of animal husbandry, I'm surprised that cloning of endangered series is not more common. Even if the clones are genetically identical, at least they buy you some more time to save them.
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Wiping out another - on that particular island, where they were non-native. Invasive species cause havoc and removing them (whether by killing or by trapping[1]) is hard but useful work. [1] See hedgehogs on some obscure Scots islands.
Duh, its evolution. You make it sound like a war theatre.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2920067.stm)
April 2005 - Animal rights activists are trying to rescue hedgehogs as an annual cull gets under way in the Outer Hebrides.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4406675.stm)
October 2005 - Protest over annual hedgehog cull
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4390054.stm)
April 2007 - The board of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has decided to suspend its cull of hedgehogs in the Western Isles.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/63...)
February 2010 - Hebridean hedgehogs: a prickly issue The Uists cull has already cost more than £1m, but we should question the causal link between bird and hedgehog populations
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/25/hedgehog...)
February 2011 - £1.3m hedgehog cull to save islands' birds eggs 'fails'
(http://www.scotsman.com/news/163_1_3m_hedgehog_cull_to_save_...)
Clickable wiki page for those that want to an image of the insect: http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryococelus_australis/
Huh. I clicked that link on my phone, and the mobile redirect got DNS hijacked by t-mobile and redirected to a tmobile/yahoo domainsquat spam page.
This is a fascinating story, but I must ask - does this belong on hacker news? Please, I ask with no intended malice.
It's good to always be asking that. As someone who often thinks "no, it doesn't", I think this kind of story is ok: it's not about politics or some kind of charged topic, it's just a random, interesting story. If you want one that's in need of flagging, the "big brother speech jamming gun" one is a great candidate.
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Nuclear weapons couldn't kill off even half of the rats on this planet.
Which is exactly why if we want to survive a nuclear war we need to start cross breeding with black rats and probably cockroaches.
However, cockroaches actually aren't any better at surviving radiation than any other species, mythbusters tried it.
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It's good to always be asking that. As someone who often thinks "no, it doesn't", I think this kind of story is ok: it's not about politics or some kind of charged topic, it's just a random, interesting story. If you want one that's in need of flagging, the "big brother speech jamming gun" one is a great candidate.
So is it unhackerlike to be politically charged?
There are very many places where such discussions are welcome.