Live data from Hacker News

The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

wired.com

31–40 of 40 posts

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#31
post #21
post #3

I just got "ad walled" by wired, putting a huge paywall like thing in front of the text talking about ad blockers. Anybody seen things like that? Certainly won't click the next wired link.

I think it's their prerogative to say "either get served ads, become a paying member, or leave." I imagine they wont mourn the loss of someone who would have likely not brought them revenue in any form, ever.

Part of the reason I use Addblock rather than another plugin is that I agree with their whole "acceptable adds" idea and I'm perfectly happy with adds if they aren't too annoying. But I wonder how many companies actually use that program?

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#32

I WANT TO SAY: thanks wired for the new anti-adblock campaign. You just saved me 10 minutes of my life reading about bee beheading hornets. Now back to programming.

Why would anbody pay $1/week for reading that article we were click-baited into?

By the way, what's the amount Wired would make on ads if I read that article? A few cents? That's probably what I'd pay given a good micropayment system for reading that single article. I'm not interested in a subscription (and even less in my personal data being in their database along with that subscription).

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#33
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you go about "teaching European honey bees new, complex behaviors"?

That's exactly what I'm wondering - whether there have been any instances of deliberate human-caused epigenetic changes in bees. In light of @ansible's sister comment that worker bees only live a few months, teaching or learning any new behaviour, let alone one as complex as recognizing and swarming an intruder to death, seems to be even more unlikely.

Bees are a eusocial organism. While individual bees are dumb/unable to understand their actions, as a whole, bees are remarkably intelligent.

Bees already swarm and kill intruders, but simply lack the understanding of how to bake the wasps. I think a cross breeding program may take care of that issue - but hybridization can bring other problems (see African bees mixing with European).

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#34
post #4
post #3

I just got "ad walled" by wired, putting a huge paywall like thing in front of the text talking about ad blockers. Anybody seen things like that? Certainly won't click the next wired link.

Yep, looks like they've started doing it. There was a discussion about their adwall plans last week.

And of course the reaction was the Anti-Adblock Killer (AAK) list, which you can subscribe to in the blocker of your choice: http://reek.github.io/anti-adblock-killer/

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#36

I WANT TO SAY: thanks wired for the new anti-adblock campaign. You just saved me 10 minutes of my life reading about bee beheading hornets. Now back to programming.

Interesting. I didn't see anything like that. Maybe noscript = win?

If you're blocking their cookies, or blocking scripts (because they increment read articles count with js for some reason) then you don't feel a thing indeed. Also, it doesn't seem to detect DNS based blocking.

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#37

I WANT TO SAY: thanks wired for the new anti-adblock campaign. You just saved me 10 minutes of my life reading about bee beheading hornets. Now back to programming.

Interesting. I didn't see anything like that. Maybe noscript = win?

Same here.

One fun quote, though: "the tiny band of marauders can wipe out a colony of 30,000 bees in a few hours, a glut of beheadings that makes the French Revolution look like Dance Dance Revolution."

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#38
post #21
post #3

I just got "ad walled" by wired, putting a huge paywall like thing in front of the text talking about ad blockers. Anybody seen things like that? Certainly won't click the next wired link.

I think it's their prerogative to say "either get served ads, become a paying member, or leave." I imagine they wont mourn the loss of someone who would have likely not brought them revenue in any form, ever.

Yeah. That's what I mean. People leave, they have no viewers anymore, everybody happy.

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#39
post #24
post #3

I just got "ad walled" by wired, putting a huge paywall like thing in front of the text talking about ad blockers. Anybody seen things like that? Certainly won't click the next wired link.

If you have uBlock, advanced mode can block the script that puts up the adwall. Just click off the allowance of 3rd party scripts for the page.

Thanks I'll try that one!

Re: The Huge, Bee-Decapitating Hornet That Can’t Survive Group Hugs

#40
post #3

I just got "ad walled" by wired, putting a huge paywall like thing in front of the text talking about ad blockers. Anybody seen things like that? Certainly won't click the next wired link.

Using Firefox, I just reloaded the page and then hit the Reader View button before the popup came back.

Also a great idea! Seldom used that feature until now.
Post reply on HN