4 ms·
(2009) Some discussion from the first time around: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=667801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=667801 Actual article titl
by ghubbard 10y ago
(2009)
Some discussion from the first time around: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=667801 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=667801
Actual article title: On Influenza A (H1N1)
HN clickbait version: On Influenza a (H1N1): How many bits does it take to kill a human?
- roflc0ptic 10y agoIt's a little click-baity, but it's also a pretty good framing for the article, which discusses both the number of kilobytes encoded in the virus and the number of bits that need changing to make the virus deadlier. Much like with naming poems, they took the first sentence of the post (minus some preamble) and used it as the title. Idk. Seems pretty defensible to me.
- schoen 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incipit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incipit
- roflc0ptic 10y agooh, neat. thanks.
- gpvos 10y agoThe incipit (thanks schoen, see sibling comment) was also in the link that got me to the article initially.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoUpvoting for the link to previous discussion. Some good stuff there. I don't mind this type of "clickbait" - it summarizes the main thread of the article well.
- mdrzn 10y agoActually it's a good title. I wouldn't have clicked "On Influenza A" because it could have been just a science article. Instead, by adding that "how many bits" I know that it's gonna talk in computer science terms, and I enjoyed it. edit: it's also written in the article by the author, have you read it?