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The Other Half

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Re: The Other Half

#121

Post by matt4077 »

lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

I disagree. The idea that headlines serve only informative purposes is rather bizarr. Ever since people wrote words on things, they were an entire literary genre for themselves.

Nowadays, people decry anything that isn't a completely literal summary of the article as "clickbait", ignoring decades of history and hundreds of masterpieces.

in this case, the actual "event" is not mentioned in the first few paragraphs. This is clearly a literary choice made by the author, and changing the headline would defeat his intentions and be somewhat lacking respect.

Here are some historic examples, and The Atlantic's humorous efforts at de-phantasizing them (from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/08/famou...):

– "Frank Sinatra has a Cold"

(Frank Sinatra Is a Complicated Person (and Unfortunately Our Reporter Did Not Get to Speak to Him))

– "Ford to City: Drop Dead"

(Ford to New York City: Drop Dead (but He Only Means That Figuratively, As He Intends to Veto Any Bail-Out for New York City’s Municipal Budget))

– "Death of an Innocent"

(A Young Man Hiked Into the Alaska Wilderness and Died Under Somewhat Mysterious Circumstances, and Also His Ordeal Raises Larger Questions About American Culture)

– "Pearls Before Breakfast"

(Most Commuters Didn’t Even Notice When a Violin-Playing Prodigy Masqueraded as a Street Performer)

– "Headless Body in Topless Bar"

Re: The Other Half

#122

Post by brandon272 »

graeme wrote: post #60
brandon272 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason I reduced my alcohol intake substantially is the effect that alcohol had on my resting heart rate. It would go up around 90bpm (or higher if I was dealing with a particularly bad hangover the next day). When I abstain it stays around 60.

Interesting. Did heart rate monitoring change any other behaviours?

Not that I can think of. Same schedule, diet, activity, sleep patterns, etc.

Re: The Other Half

#123

Post by OJFord »

mikeash wrote: post #118
matthewowen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Movie titles according to Hacker News: Man finds wife's head in box. Therapist of boy who sees ghosts is a ghost. Man who killed hero's father is actually his father. I get that you want more information, but sometimes getting the information makes reading something less pleasurable. The author here doesn't disclose the detail you're talking about until a third of the way through. Disclosing it in the title fundament…

Movies are meant to entertain, and creative titles are part of that. News is meant to inform, and non-creative titles are part of that. Look at any decent newspaper and the headlines will look like your satirical movie titles. HN is much closer to newspapers than movies.

This isn't news though; it is creative (though true) writing, the title is the author's to decide.

Re: The Other Half

#124

Post by matt4077 »

mikeash wrote: post #118
matthewowen wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Movie titles according to Hacker News: Man finds wife's head in box. Therapist of boy who sees ghosts is a ghost. Man who killed hero's father is actually his father. I get that you want more information, but sometimes getting the information makes reading something less pleasurable. The author here doesn't disclose the detail you're talking about until a third of the way through. Disclosing it in the title fundament…

Movies are meant to entertain, and creative titles are part of that. News is meant to inform, and non-creative titles are part of that. Look at any decent newspaper and the headlines will look like your satirical movie titles. HN is much closer to newspapers than movies.

This isn't news. It's an essay.

Re: The Other Half

#125

Post by DanBC »

ginko wrote: post #81
pmarreck wrote: post #4

I sat on a "weird pain" in my chest for a few days. Basically it was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side, and I felt a bit short of breath. Turns out I was suffering from a double pulmonary embolism , and that the only reason I wasn't doubled over in pain is because by an odd fluke of nature, the interior of the lungs do not have nerve endings (only the exterior) and had I waited any longer I could have died. At t…

>Guys/gals... If there's any unusual pain in your chest cavity at all, just drop whatever it is you're doing and get it checked out. It might not even seem that bad at the time... it didn't to me and it didn't to Jason Scott... just do it. Yeah, but where do you draw the line? I guess that will sound silly, but I'm always afraid that people think of me as a hypochondriac if I ran to the doctor for every little pain,…

> Yeah, but where do you draw the line?

You can search the English NHS Choices website.

That gives calm mostly evidence based advice and lets you know when you should self care, or when you should see a doctor.

For example, here's "chest pain": http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chest-pain/Pages/Introduction.a...

It says there are a variety of causes, but it says you must never ignore it, and gives some criteria for when you should dial 911.

In England we also have NHS 111, which is a free telephone advice line. It's not as good as it could be because fo obvious reasons they're risk averse.

Re: The Other Half

#126

Post by samf »

revelation wrote: post #31
smacktoward wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even if you're not experiencing any pain -- if you haven't been to the doctor in a long time... go to the doctor. Get a routine checkup! It can save your life. I almost learned this the hard way a few years ago. I was in my late 30s, and handled going to the doctor the way I always had since reaching adulthood -- which is to say, I didn't bother with it unless I was feeling out of sorts. Routine doctor visits seem…

Sometimes a high BP is just a reaction to someone measuring your BP. One side effect of a high BP is that you hear the thumping sound of your blood pulsing. I personally have my heart rate and blood pressure explode whenever anyone tries to measure them. So I was referred to a cardiologist who did some basic checks like an echo, found nothing wrong and wired me up to a device that measures BP continuously for 24h. My…

I've been seeing the same doctor for nearly two decades. She does the same routine every time she takes my blood pressure: "So, (puts on cuff), do you have any trips planned? Anything fun coming up? (pump pump pump)".

I laugh inside at how consistent she is, so I guess it still works on me.

Re: The Other Half

#127

Post by crispyambulance »

ginko wrote: post #81
pmarreck wrote: post #4

I sat on a "weird pain" in my chest for a few days. Basically it was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side, and I felt a bit short of breath. Turns out I was suffering from a double pulmonary embolism , and that the only reason I wasn't doubled over in pain is because by an odd fluke of nature, the interior of the lungs do not have nerve endings (only the exterior) and had I waited any longer I could have died. At t…

>Guys/gals... If there's any unusual pain in your chest cavity at all, just drop whatever it is you're doing and get it checked out. It might not even seem that bad at the time... it didn't to me and it didn't to Jason Scott... just do it. Yeah, but where do you draw the line? I guess that will sound silly, but I'm always afraid that people think of me as a hypochondriac if I ran to the doctor for every little pain,…

Don't "draw the line" anywhere with chest pains.

I say this as someone who has survived PE. In my case, I had pain that was a vague persistent discomfort combined with an evolving sense of panic. I hesitated for a day but then drove myself to the hospital just in time because it had progressed in the emergency room to searing pain where I "saw stars" upon each breath. Literally the most painful experience I ever had.

When you walk into an emergency room and indicate you have chest pains, they will immediately try to assess whether or not you're having a heart attack. After that there are checks to rule out PE and you may have a CAT scan w/contrast fluid.

There are other much less dangerous things that cause chest pain... stress-induced muscle pain is one. The problem is you can't be sure until its too late. Carry health insurance and don't try to second-guess chest pain.

Re: The Other Half

#128

Post by AceJohnny2 »

hengheng wrote: post #94

Who is this about? I read a well-written and beautiful story, I just have no idea what the context is.

Jason Scott is a computer archiver, in that he works to preserve the history of all things computing. He works for the Internet Archive.

He's been featured around here a few times: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=textfiles.com&sort=byPopularit...

One of the more memorable posts was the one where they worked frantically to preserve a warehouse full of old manuals: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10076974

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Scott

(and even his cat has a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sockington)

Re: The Other Half

#129

Post by abalone »

matthewowen wrote: post #83
lkrubner wrote: post #70

Once again, the policy on headline titles for articles on HackerNews is a bit bizarre. The original title explained that the man almost died. This current title is "The Other Half" and does not explain anything at all. As a practical matter, the policy seems to amount to "We use the title of the original article, unless it is strongly stated, in which case we regard it as clickbait and change it to something dull." T…

Movie titles according to Hacker News: Man finds wife's head in box. Therapist of boy who sees ghosts is a ghost. Man who killed hero's father is actually his father. I get that you want more information, but sometimes getting the information makes reading something less pleasurable. The author here doesn't disclose the detail you're talking about until a third of the way through. Disclosing it in the title fundament…

Bad analogy. All movies have spoiler-free synopses, e.g. "Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi." And that's exactly what you read before deciding which movie to watch. That's more or less what we're asking for here, in title form.

Re: The Other Half

#130

Post by athenot »

chrisper wrote: post #104
athenot wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a stent, they only use conscious sedation, that's enough. It's not like they open up your chest; they go in through your wrist or your goin.

In the article he said he could see his heart on a monitor. Was he maybe referring to the camera they use when they are in your body?

There is imaging but not from a camera in the body (blood is not exactly transparent).

It's a form of x-ray video with a tracer in the blood, so they can observe both the guide and the blood irrigation.

The doctor will use live x-ray pictures to carefully guide the catheter up into your heart and arteries. Dye will be injected into your body to highlight blood flow through the arteries. This helps the doctor see any blockages in the blood vessels that lead to your heart.

A guide wire is moved into and across the blockage. A balloon catheter is pushed over the guide wire and into the blockage. The balloon on the end is blown up (inflated). This opens the blocked vessel and restores proper blood flow to the heart.

Source: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007473.htm

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