No Aotearoa coverage :(
Announcing the Pollen API
31–40 of 88 posts
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
vitriolic comment voicing your own little issues that adds nothing to the conversation about the topic at hand
1. Threads on HN aren't expected to remain on-topic, especially top-level comments (like the one you're replying to). HN's content guidelines place no restriction on comments to be on-topic, let alone decide what on-topic is. 2. I see no vitriol in your parent comment. Sarcasm yes, but employing sarcasm alone does not make speech vitriolic. 3. You commented _about_ your parent, rathering than responding to the conten…
> HN's content guidelines place no restriction on comments to be on-topic, let alone decide what on-topic is.
Do you really think there needs to be a guideline saying "comments should be on-topic"? Wouldn't you assume that based on both the guidelines and how we generally conduct ourselves in the comments? The guidelines don't say anything specifically about racism but surely you would agree that racist comments have no place here, right?
But despite all that, the guidelines do ask us to avoid generic tangents and to not post shallow dismissals. I'd say the comment at the top of this thread qualifies on both counts.
Now we're many messages deep here arguing about what belongs and that itself is a violation of the most important guideline: this is boring to read.
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#33At the surface this looks cool but I wonder if the data is actually reliable.
That heatmap is pretty.
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#34The title mentions "Providing actionable info" but I don't see what's actually actionable here? The text also mentions "Actionable tips to minimize pollen exposure", what besides avoid going outside or wearing a mask could you actually do?
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#35If this does take off, it might actually turn out to be extremely dangerous.
Lets say you buy into all the marketing nonsense about how it can value add to your business and maybe even someone decides to create something genuinely useful for people with crippling alergies, maybe different routes, or some kind of alert system.
Then Google in their usual way shuts down the api service with no recourse or alternative. Now you've left people who were using it, maybe heavily during certain seasons etc, stranded.
I agree with the other posts, this smells of a "POC" that was pushed forward to demonstrate work done. Will be interesting to see how good the data is, but moreso how long the service will last.
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#36If this does take off, it might actually turn out to be extremely dangerous. Lets say you buy into all the marketing nonsense about how it can value add to your business and maybe even someone decides to create something genuinely useful for people with crippling alergies, maybe different routes, or some kind of alert system. Then Google in their usual way shuts down the api service with no recourse or alternative. N…
Literally nothing lasts forever.
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#37> According to the World Health Organization, up to ⅓ of the global population suffers from allergic rhinitis, Has anyone yet figured out why so many humans suffer from an allergy to many natural plants which we have lived around for millions of years? It looks like the first documented case of Hayfever was March 1819[1], and at the time it was considered a very unusual and rare affliction. When and why has it now be…
According to Wikipedia [0], Hayfever was already described in the 10th century. It is less common among people who grew up on a farm and more common with rising temperatures and air pollution. Hayfever is also significantly more common in urban areas.
Assumably all of these factors play a role in the prevalence today, though that doesn't rule out the existence of other undiscovered factors (e.g. a disease, as some people speculated).
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#38If this does take off, it might actually turn out to be extremely dangerous. Lets say you buy into all the marketing nonsense about how it can value add to your business and maybe even someone decides to create something genuinely useful for people with crippling alergies, maybe different routes, or some kind of alert system. Then Google in their usual way shuts down the api service with no recourse or alternative. N…
Literally nothing lasts forever.
There's a difference between 'lasting forever' and pulling the plug without warning as Google are known to do after people/companies have invested into the services.
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#39I think this should have been the link: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/going-b... It's a new initiative with multiple new API's: Solar API, Air Quality API, Pollen API. And that link gives an overview for them all.
Solar I sort of get since I don't think anyone does it the scale like Google Sunroof, but not sure what the added value is for Google to create the APIs for Air Quality and Pollen? There are service providers and models that do these already at global scale (e.g. https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/air-quality & https://silam.fmi.fi/).
Re: Announcing the Pollen API
#40> According to the World Health Organization, up to ⅓ of the global population suffers from allergic rhinitis, Has anyone yet figured out why so many humans suffer from an allergy to many natural plants which we have lived around for millions of years? It looks like the first documented case of Hayfever was March 1819[1], and at the time it was considered a very unusual and rare affliction. When and why has it now be…
There was a very interesting discussion recently on this topic. [1]
There are various hypothesis:
* changes to gut microbiome composition due to modern diets and overuse of antibiotics
* excessive cleanliness and hygiene. The "hygiene hypothesis" suggests that lack of exposure to diverse microbes leads to improperly trained immune systems
* increased exposure to chemicals, plastics, and pollutants that may disrupt immune function
* Cesarean sections and formula feeding rather than vaginal birth and breastfeeding