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bitops on Hacker News

Re:Julie Ann Horvath Describes Sexism and Intimidation Behind Her GitH... on Sunday March 16, 2014 @02:44AM (#7408230)
As usual, another HN thread that perfectly exemplifies victim blaming and a collective burying of heads in the sand. There's a few people on here who seem to get it, but most don't. I'm sick of it. Goodbye, Hacker News.
Re:So You Think You Want to Open a Brewery on Monday March 10, 2014 @04:02PM (#7375342)
It's all really hard work and a winery is likely even more work. You need to always be watching the grapes, you have to hire seasonal workers to pick the grapes (actually not much automation in this area) plus the unpredictability of the weather.
Re:Meditate in front of your computer with Calm on Thursday February 27, 2014 @03:55AM (#7311134)
I think the whole website is lovely. I hope Calm does really well.
Re:Australian-made high tech armour could reinvent Mixed Martial Arts on Wednesday February 26, 2014 @03:58AM (#7303762)
Agreed - if you swing a sword hard enough it just becomes a bat, not a cutting device. I feel like this armor empowers people who'd like the experience of just wailing on somebody with a stick, but it doesn't really simulate a real combat scenario.
Re:Kit Kat Conspiracy (2002) on Friday February 21, 2014 @03:35AM (#7275991)
That would be fine except Hershey's chocolate really isn't very good. They use way too much sugar and not enough cocoa to really make it respectable chocolate. The only reason it sells well is because of market dominance and that many Americans are deprived of exposure to good, high-quality chocolate.

When it comes to food we should remember that the Bay Area is a total bubble. Some of the finest food in the world is produced here and some very innovate and ground-breaking work in the various food movements came from here.

Sorry, but Hershey's gets me worked up.

Re:Kit Kat Conspiracy (2002) on Friday February 21, 2014 @03:31AM (#7275981)
It's true that "consumer chocolate" in America is pretty bad, i.e. anything made by Hershey's. Too much sugar and not enough cocoa.

Good stuff should be above 57% cocoa. If it's less than that, buy high-quality milk chocolate.

That said, other commenters on this thread are correct that it's not too hard to find good chocolate if you just know what to shop for.

My all time favorite is Valrhona. It's by far the best chocolate of them all. Obviously that's personal preference.

We're lucky that we have at least two awesome local brands in the Bay Area. Recchiuti chocolate is awesome, the only location I know of is in the ferry building. Tcho chocolate is the other one and I've been told that they do some interesting stuff with analytics to create the ultimate chocolately goodness.

I care little for Ghirardelli. I went to Ghirardelli Square as a kid and it was fun, but it's just not my thing now.

Re:Monkey research suggests a biological explanation for toy preferenc... on Monday February 10, 2014 @03:00PM (#7213324)
Imagine a scientific study that just said "Scientific justification for social oppression found." In a nutshell, I believe that's why.

It's not even that it's bad for there to be differences between the sexes; what's bad is that some people will inevitable take these studies as justification for their sexist views and attitudes.

Re:The Unpaid Bill that Launched a Thousand Starships on Tuesday February 04, 2014 @06:46PM (#7181019)
Agreed - I have to mention necroscope86 on YouTube. By far my favorite LP'er. I think he had a snafu with his account that deleted a bunch of videos, but he had some very funny X-COM play throughs. It was more about his commentary and British accent that made it worth watching than the actual games themselves.
Re:Dogecoin and the Appeal of Small Numbers on Wednesday January 22, 2014 @09:26PM (#7106705)
Well...there's that one operating system out there that got pretty popular after some guy in Finland posted it online. Name escapes me at the moment, though.
Re:Dogecoin and the Appeal of Small Numbers on Wednesday January 22, 2014 @07:07PM (#7106249)
Funny enough, that attitude may make it more successful in the long term. History has shown many times that it's not always the 100% dead serious who make it, but those who are just, well...making it up as they go along.
Re:Dogecoin and the Appeal of Small Numbers on Wednesday January 22, 2014 @07:03PM (#7106237)
That's the thing - my karma is high enough that I know what not to post. Generally speaking. Every once in a while though, I get tired of pretending that I don't also have a goofy sense of humor and stuff like this slips through. Oh well.
Re:Dogecoin and the Appeal of Small Numbers on Wednesday January 22, 2014 @05:16PM (#7105753)
You know most people don't want to believe that dogecoin is a real virtual currency.

[EDIT: Apparently some people on HN have not seen 'Cool Runnings'.]

Re:Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1) on Tuesday January 21, 2014 @06:27PM (#7099427)
> Perhaps the average man is less risk-averse than the average woman and therefore is more likely to enter a risky business venture.

I think the general assumption for women promoting these types of events is that while this statement may be true, it's not because of an inherent difference in women and men. The difference is due to social and cultural conditioning, not because of any biological difference.

Re:Announcing the Female Founders Conference (March 1) on Tuesday January 21, 2014 @02:51PM (#7097797)
Well, why don't we find some men and ask them why they don't seek out the advice of women founders already?
Re:Today I Briefed Congress on the NSA on Thursday January 16, 2014 @09:32PM (#7073933)
Nit: Michiganders.
Re:Secret State of North Korea [video] on Thursday January 16, 2014 @01:11AM (#7068324)
Here's a simple example that most of us can probably relate to. I often read the Danish news outlets for coverage on "big" international stories. I read them a lot during the last Iraq war.

The example: when the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, and US media were saying that the "alleged photos might not be possible to obtain" I saw them a full 3 days early on Danish media before I could find them anywhere on US news.

[EDIT: My UCSC roots will really show here - check out "Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky for one perspective. And yes, it's Chomsky, so YMMV.]

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