From the LA Times article: "At one point the members broke into two groups, each standing around separate pianos to sing.". If you've ever watched a choir practice, this likely meant everyone facing inward toward the piano, and you can't stand too far apart because you need to hear everyone else to harmonize and adjust your volume. Singing loudly is probably only second to sneezing in terms of projecting atomized 'stuff' from the respiratory tract into the air. So there were 30 people standing in a circle spraying droplets directly at each other.
It may very well be that it's very easy to spread this virus, but I don't think this incident is a good indication of that. It seems more an indication of how poorly even well-intentioned people understood the contagiousness and what exactly social distancing meant at the time this happened (1 month ago).
I suspect that the risk increases the longer you're in an enclosed space with someone shedding the virus. Thought experiment, if spending two hours in the church with people singing meant 50% got infected. Then spending 5 minutes assuming it's linear (and it likely isn't), is only a 2% chance.
Brings up the difference between public health risk and personal risk. Public health perspective you want contacts to be infrequent and importantly short.
I think both the multiple app store and 'apple isn't responsible for promoting your app' are both red herrings. The issue is that the search function in the app store lies to end users. To use the example in the article, if I go to the app store and search for "weigh loss tracker" I get 5 result, none of which is Happy Scale. The default sort is 'relevance', whatever that means, but i can change that to Most Popular. Still no Happy Scale. If I search for "Happy Scale" i get no result. From my perspective as an end user of the App Store, I'm being lied to. The search is not returning honest results that correspond to what I search for. This is not what the end user expects of search, they expect true organic results based on what they searched for, or at worst, a complete list with the apps Apple wants to promote at the top. In this case they are getting a curated subset of those results and not being told this is the case. Also, consider that the app store is unusable without search. There are million of apps, so is no way to browse it to find what you're looking for. If search doesn't return it, it might as well not exist in the app store.
Unless this is thoroughly explained somewhere in the dev documentation, then developers are being lied to also.
People threw a fit when Google changed the search result UI so that it became impossible to tell paid results from organic results. This is similar but worse. Google just put the paid results above the organic ones. Apple completely removes the organic results at their whim.
The author should have been promoting the app thru multiple channels and not relying on the app store search exclusively, this was an obvious mistake. This doesn't justify what Apple did though. It's their app store, and they can do what they want, but this, although legal, is pretty sleazy IMO.
Is this bad faith or unbelievable incompetence on Apple's part?
It's tempting to assume the former, but I seriously suspect the latter.
As a user I've seen this happen repeatedly. Search can't find an app even if I enter the name.
This happens for mundane but specialised apps - train timetables, toll payment apps, and other apps for which there is literally no alternative, never mind one that might somehow sell better and make more money.
I don't see how this possibly benefits Apple. Possibly there's some not very effective "optimisation" happening, but it's also possible search is just plain broken.
I'd argue this is a consequence of a lack of competition. Since there's no where else for you to go, what incentive do they have to fix search? Devs may complain a bit, but Apple still controls enough of the phone market that people are going to continue to make apps out of necessity and Apple will still get paid. As long as people can still find the "big" apps (uber, netflix, tinder, spotify, etc.), there won't be a meaningful outcry from users. It's not like someone is going to switch OS's over this.
I have a tendency to let frustration build up until I lose my temper. The issue is that I don't realize I'm doing it until I'm ready to explode. My last dog was so sensitive to that, that she could tell when I was starting to get angry before I would realize it. I would be sitting at my computer, struggling with something, and I'd feel her poke me in the leg with her nose, then I knew it was time to take a break. I think she could hear that i was typing 'harder' when I got angry, but it could have been any one of a lot of tiny signals. Point is, she was consistently aware of me getting angry before I was. I miss that dog...
Most MDM's install both a cert and a profile on iOS devices that allow the MDM admin to do just about anything. Any company-owned device is going to come to the user with this pre-installed, and non-removable by the user. I'd be astounded if a company the size, and with the security stance of Tesla didn't use the most intrusive MDM available.
Actually, in the US "Abandoned Vehicle" is a legal thing and depending on local laws you might very well be able to claim, and get title to a vehicle that has been abandoned on your property. And the abandonment period can be really short, 48 hrs in some states. It depends on your state's definition of "abandoned vehicle", and local laws, and it will probably require a few trips to the DMV and might require filing in small claims court, but there is a legal process for gaining ownership of a vehicle that has been left on your property.
Same for any lost property, if you find something valuable (wallet full of cash), you generally have to turn it in to the police, and there is a notification process to try to find the owner, and after a period of time (generally 3 months), if no one has claimed it, it's yours. Again, local laws are going to differ, but the general legal concept, that "A finder of property acquires no rights in mislaid property, is entitled to possession of lost property against everyone except the true owner, and is entitled to keep abandoned property."[1] is common.
There's some old saying about possession being 9/10ths of the law....
The definitions of equanimity and disassociation sound really similar, but they are very different things. In Equanimity, you feel a connection to everything, with the sense of self and ego diminished or completely removed. In Disassociation, you feel disconnected from everything, floating free and completely alone. To be honest, I've never experienced equanimity, so I'm going off the descriptions I've read and had explained to me, in my own attempts at mindfulness meditation. Disassociation, I've experienced multiple times. It tends to happen when one is in an extremely stressful emotional state, and it's a big relief when it happens in that context, but it's a self-defense strategy, and not a healthy state. I suspect you could achieve it accidentally when trying for equanimity, but it isn't equanimity.
That's what is known as 'feed corn' and is grown specifically as livestock feed. The specific strains of corn are optimized for producing maximum plant material, which is mostly stalk and leaves. A field of feed corn plants will usually be very tall, 8-15 feet. In contrast a field of sweet corn (grown for human consumption and possibly for processing into other foods), will be much shorter, since it's optimized to produce the most, largest and highest sugar content corn kernels, and any energy the plant spends to grow a tall stalk is wasted.
Feed corn is harvested with big combines that just cut down the whole plant at ground level and chop everything up. The results are piled up and left to ferment. Once fermented, you have silage.
I'd be surprised to learn anyone was harvesting sweet corn and saving the waste material to make silage. The equipment isn't designed to keep that stuff it just gets dumped back onto the field. And those strains of corn don't produce very much plant material since they're optimized for small plants and big cobs. Additionally you'd have to load all the waste material into trucks, which would significantly raise the cost of harvesting. And dumping that stuff back onto the field is a good thing, it helps keep the dirt down for the winter and decomposes into usable nutrients and fibrous material which helps reduce compacting, etc. It'd be expensive and labor intensive to try to capture the waste material from feed corn. It's easier and more economical to just plant feed corn or buy silage.
You're right about straw, though. The harvesters are specifically designed to leave the straw in row pile behind them. Then you run a baler over that and it leaves a row of straw bales in the field. Then you run a stacker over that (or a flatbed trailer and buck 'em by hand) and you have a haystack.
I had a good friend who just had open "hang out" time every day after work in his garage. There was a group of about 30 friends who might stop by any time between 5 and 8 PM, have a beer, hang out and BS. Sometimes it was just Paul and 1 or 2 others, sometimes 15 people showed up, sometimes Paul wasn't even there, but the garage was always open (if you had the code). I used to go almost every day between work and home, it's how i made about half the friends I have now. It was also where weekend plans got made and many a hunting/fishing/camping trip got planned there.
That's over now and I really miss it. Buddy had some health problems and ended up with an overwhelming opiate addiction and just stopped hanging out with anyone. Some of the friends still get together for a weekend poker game but it's not the same. It was so cool to have a place you could go hang out after work where you knew everyone was fun to be around and they liked having you around. You never know who would be there or what the conversation would be but it was always a good time.
I've tried to get the same thing going myself, but have never been successful. I'm not sure how you get that started. Once it's going, it's self-sustaining, but you have to reach a critical mass of participants and has to occur really regularly, even daily. I think maybe it takes a very specific kind of person to be the host.
Anyway, that's what the OP's campfire analogy made me think of. I really miss it...
I feel like I have this setup. For the last 3 years, I’ve been going to a cafe in downtown SF. Over the course of this time, I’ve met people who’ve become best friends, roommates, ppl to do side projects with and much more. Friends know if they want to talk to me they can very reliably just walk in and find me there 8/10 times.
The cool thing about this set up is that you make new friends on a rolling basis which is key because friends you hang with will occasionally move elsewhere or change lifestyles. Over the course of the 3 years, I think the following implicit principles have worked really well:
- We have no expectations of finding each other.
- We don’t make plans.
- On the rare occasion that we make plans, it is very informal. You’re free to flake / be late without being nagged or feeling like you’ve someone waiting on you (they aren’t.)
- Very concrete plans are reserved for events (sad and happy) like a breakup or career chat — in those cases, I’ll make sure to be there at the time I expect the friend.
The happiest guy I know has this exact setup at his place. It’s a group of about 15 people of which at least 5-6 show up daily to have a beer, plays cards, and generally pass the evening hours.
Coming from a fast paced corporate world, it’s a uniquely beautiful experience.
> I've tried to get the same thing going myself, but have never been successful. I'm not sure how you get that started. Once it's going, it's self-sustaining, but you have to reach a critical mass of participants and has to occur really regularly, even daily. I think maybe it takes a very specific kind of person to be the host.
You don't need to be the host. Indeed, the host can be some organization. A place of worship, if that appeals. Or a Unitarian "Church", if you're not religious. Or a hackerspace. Or really, any sort of interest group. Even the neighborhood bar, if it's a good one.
And maybe, once you get to know enough people, you can host parties, and people will show up.
It's true. I'm a chuch-goer and have a couple of board gaming groups going from people I met at church. I've met all kinds of people at church that I probably wouldn't have met otherwise. There are computer chip designers, software engineers, accountants, doctors, police officers, a navy seal, a lumber mill operator, professors, scientists, veterans living at the local salvation army center, psychologists, business people, economists, etc.
Trivia works. I go to two trivias (M/W) almost every week. I have a group of about 6 people that show up (random which subset) to each (not the same people) to play on my team, sometimes more (used to be a lot more but some people moved). And the other teams are people I knew before going there or have come to know since starting. Pleasant way to spend a couple hours a couple times a week. A bit of hanging out, a bit of competitive fun, and more hanging out.
I'm pretty welcoming and gregarious, I have had random people join my team before when they asked (my teammates were less comfortable at first, but relaxed and welcomed them later). This will definitely depend on the crowd. It may be easier to start your own team (or playing solo at the bar) and just start getting to know the other teams for a while first before asking to join them.
It also depends on the location. One is a restaurant, people are generally less welcoming to random folks sitting at their dining table (unfortunately). The other location is a bar. It's much easier to just join a random team. Find 3 people sitting at the bar and ask if you can join them. Or, like the last folks that joined us, find a table with several empty seats and ask to join them.
Join a club for people with common interests. Or find a new interest - I started CrossFit 2 years ago with no prior interest in fitness and to me the social aspect is as important as the fitness aspect, if not moreso.
There was a weekly freestyle dance in New York City that I attended, many years ago. In a studio, with a good wood floor, near Broadway and Houston. It was run by a collective, and part of a northeast association, which had summer dance camps. As I recall, it cost $5 at the door, and less if you subscribed. All ages were welcome, even toddlers. Maybe it still exists. And there are many others, for different dance styles.
Meetup.com has issues. Their recent site redesign pushes people not to be loyal to groups and use it as a "what can it do for me right now" It's killed group identities and there have been a loss of groups. (Orgs have complained very loudly.. but meetup doesn't care)
I've seen this happen in my group and we're looking to see what's next.
Interesting, the list of attributes of a third place sums up the techno scene in my city almost exactly, except I'd say that conversation isn't necessarily the main activity.
The scene is small enough that you always run into the same people every time you're out.
Yes, it sucks. But I suspect that his reticence about hanging out had more to do with the pain than the opioid addiction. In my experience, opioid addicts can be quite social. At least, when they're not nodding out or in withdrawal. I don't like them much as friends, however, because you'll likely never matter more to them than avoiding withdrawal. Same with alcoholics and other addicts.
That's pretty much what every local bar is. Have you never seen Cheers... that's what bars are. That's what being a regular is. The other regulars become your friends.
I had a similar experience. I show up at the ER and they do their thing. Doctor says, "the symptoms indicate appendicitis, but the tests (which are mostly just poking you in the side and seeing how bad it hurts) are inconclusive. Normal procedure is to send you home and see how it goes, but I'd really feel more comfortable if we took a CT scan to be sure". At this point I'm in so much pain if he said he wanted to do a voodoo ceremony, I'd have been all in. CT scan reveals I had a weirdly shaped appendix, hidden behind a couple of folds of intestine, in a slightly different area than they are usually in. So the poking test didn't work cause they were poking around in the wrong area. If they'd sent me home I'd have come back with a burst appendix, which is potentially fatal. Ironically, just as they were wheeling me into the operating room, a woman came into the ER with an actual burst appendix so they wheeled me out and took her first.
I had a dog who started having a runny bloody nose all the time. 4 xrays, 2 nasal endooscope procedures and several thousand dollars and still can't figure out what's wrong. In desperation took him to a really good emergency/surgery vet clinic, they did a CT scan and it reveals a large tumor growing on the nasal cavity side of the soft palate. Confirmed with an endoscope going into the mouth and back up into the sinuses, couldn't see it from the front. Super frustrating because it was too late to do anything at this point.
I think using CT scans in the context of a checkup, to look for problems, is bad, because as discussed elsewhere on this thread, if you go looking for something, you'll find something. But if you already know there is a problem, they're the best tool we have for looking inside the body without cutting.
I started to reply to thinking there was a federal minimum speed limit but decided I should confirm what I believed and glad I did because I was wrong. In the US, states have full control over the speed limits that are set on both the state hwys and the interstate freeways within that state. That said, I'm pretty sure every freeway I've ever been on had a posted minimum 45mph speed limit, and bikes are not allowed.
Whether or not speed variances between vehicles increase accidents doesn't seem to be clear. With a quick search I found this(1) that indicates that speed variances don't play a role in causing accidents. I also found this (2), which says "that the greater the difference between a driver’s speed and the average speed of traffic—both above and below that average speed—the greater the likelihood of involvement in a crash". And I found this (3) which basically says the speed limit should be set at the 85th percentile of what everyone is driving. Kind of like how you should build sidewalks where people walk ("Don’t make any walkways this year. At the end of the year, look at where the grass is worn away. That shows where the students are walking. Then just pave those paths"), set the speed limit at the speed most people drive.
Everywhere in the US I've lived, the max speed limit laws were written like "whatever speed is safe for current conditions up to a maximum of XX Mph" So you can get a speeding ticket for going slower than the posted limit if conditions are bad. I've actually been pulled over going well under the posted max speed limit during a hard snow storm.
>That said, I'm pretty sure every freeway I've ever been on had a posted minimum 45mph speed limit, and bikes are not allowed.
There are exceptions, especially in the US West, where interstates may be the only path for miles and miles through some mountain ranges. Of course, they mostly have wide shoulders where people ride.
It may very well be that it's very easy to spread this virus, but I don't think this incident is a good indication of that. It seems more an indication of how poorly even well-intentioned people understood the contagiousness and what exactly social distancing meant at the time this happened (1 month ago).