Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 60 posts

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#11

Post by beloch »

Fuzzwah wrote: post #2

I scroll down past the opening photo so the 1st line of text is at the top of my browser window and settle in to begin reading and then the header scrolls down to cover the top 3 lines of text. Hate.

It's really poor design. Widescreen displays are in the overwhelming majority at present, but few people prefer columns of text that fill the screen horizontally. Vertical screen real estate therefore commands a premium price. Users probably wouldn't mind a vertical bar off to the side nearly as much.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#12

Post by DanBC »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #5
Fuzzwah wrote: post #2

I scroll down past the opening photo so the 1st line of text is at the top of my browser window and settle in to begin reading and then the header scrolls down to cover the top 3 lines of text. Hate.

Side project idea, chrome or firefox extension that takes text and pictures from popular news sites and removes all the distracting bells and whistles. Now that I think about it, something like that probably already exists.

Readability?

https://www.readability.com/

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#13

Post by teddyh »

ugexe wrote: post #10
teddyh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, in the actual developed world, nobody buys bottled water because the tap water is perfectly indistinguishable from the bottled stuff, which the stores only keep for tourists.

I know plenty of people in the developed world that drink bottled water. Its not that hard to taste the difference between 2 sources of water (filtered vs spring), and not everyone wants to drink fluoridated tap or rusty well water.

People who can taste a difference in tap versus bottled water perhaps do not live in as developed a society as they would like to believe.

I certainly have never prefered bottled water over tap. There might be a difference if you made a blind study, but I have never needed to care that much, and I probably couldn’t tell the difference if you gave me a blind test. People around me also seem not to use bottled water in any great amounts; certainly not nearly as much as people in American media apparently do.

(The only place I encounter actual bottled water is in restaurants, and then only the sparkly variety, which I feel is not the same thing.)

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#14

Post by cdr »

teddyh wrote: post #6
jessaustin wrote: post #4

One year, we couldn’t buy bottled water for months, because the plant that produced the water somehow caught fire. Ouch. A way to know one lives in the developing world.

Meanwhile, in the actual developed world, nobody buys bottled water because the tap water is perfectly indistinguishable from the bottled stuff, which the stores only keep for tourists.

My tap water (from a well) is highly sulfuric. The quality and taste of tap water varies greatly from location to location, "developed world" or not. There are all sorts of good reasons to buy bottled water.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#15

Post by teddyh »

cema wrote: post #8
teddyh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, in the actual developed world, nobody buys bottled water because the tap water is perfectly indistinguishable from the bottled stuff, which the stores only keep for tourists.

You are generally right, but nitpicking, bottled water is useful for: large parties; hiking and camping; certain outdoor jobs.

I completely fail to see why tap water would not serve just as well for these occasions. Or is your tap water actually, noticably, different than bottled?

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#16

Post by chrisBob »

cema wrote: post #8
teddyh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, in the actual developed world, nobody buys bottled water because the tap water is perfectly indistinguishable from the bottled stuff, which the stores only keep for tourists.

You are generally right, but nitpicking, bottled water is useful for: large parties; hiking and camping; certain outdoor jobs.

Since we are nitpicking, I would say that water bottles are good for hiking camping and working outdoors, I would not recommend buying bottled water to carry on a walk.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#17

Post by ufmace »

Fuzzwah wrote: post #2

I scroll down past the opening photo so the 1st line of text is at the top of my browser window and settle in to begin reading and then the header scrolls down to cover the top 3 lines of text. Hate.

Another solution - Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey script:

    // ==UserScript==
    // @name       Remove New Yorker navbar
    // @match      http://www.newyorker.com/*
    // ==/UserScript==

    document.getElementById('mobile-nav-container').setAttribute('style', 'top: -550px;');

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#18

Post by teddyh »

cdr wrote: post #14
teddyh wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, in the actual developed world, nobody buys bottled water because the tap water is perfectly indistinguishable from the bottled stuff, which the stores only keep for tourists.

My tap water (from a well) is highly sulfuric. The quality and taste of tap water varies greatly from location to location, "developed world" or not. There are all sorts of good reasons to buy bottled water.

If your tap water is unusable, you do not live in a civilized society with modern infrastructure.

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#19

Post by bitJericho »

teddyh wrote: post #6
jessaustin wrote: post #4

One year, we couldn’t buy bottled water for months, because the plant that produced the water somehow caught fire. Ouch. A way to know one lives in the developing world.

Meanwhile, in the actual developed world, nobody buys bottled water because the tap water is perfectly indistinguishable from the bottled stuff, which the stores only keep for tourists.

Unless you're American

Re: A neighborhood garbageman explains modern Egypt

#20

Post by jessaustin »

teddyh wrote: post #18
cdr wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My tap water (from a well) is highly sulfuric. The quality and taste of tap water varies greatly from location to location, "developed world" or not. There are all sorts of good reasons to buy bottled water.

If your tap water is unusable, you do not live in a civilized society with modern infrastructure.

Yikes! Perhaps it's best to leave "civilization" out of this?
Post reply on HN