17 ms·

This is getting absolutely rediculous ... Epoxy resins may very well have created the Diabetes epidemic, with genetic data backing it. https://bit.ly/2J3Btq5 h

This is getting absolutely rediculous ... Epoxy resins may very well have created the Diabetes epidemic, with genetic data backing it. https://bit.ly/2J3Btq5 https://bit.ly/2J3Btq5 And the chemical used to make Teflon was dumped into the Mississippi river valley for years, leading to a spate of birth defects and other more common medical problems. Dupont paid hundreds of millions : https://bit.ly/2fFAw9Q https://bit.ly/2fFAw9Q Carlin had it right .... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c

milesokeefe 8y ago
Non-shortened: [0] https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plastic-measures-500cdf1fe528 https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plas... [1] https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/teflon-and-perfluorooctanoic-acid-pfoa.html https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/teflon-and-perfl...
- pasbesoin 8y ago
  Thank you. I agree, and I seem to recall other comments to this effect, in the past. The guidelines don't specifically mention URL shorteners, but they do ask posters to supply original sources: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter. Personally, and as a suggestion for this site, I would extend that to ask that sources not be hidden behind a URL shortener. I want to see where I'm going; I also don't appreciate my click being tracked. I go "meta" on HN only reluctantly. But, I've noticed the increasing volume of comments on HN, and it seems worthwhile mentioning that HN has some different expectations than other sites. Expectations that have helped to keep the commentary elevated and on point, up to now. (I'm just another poster, here. The only basis for my comment is appreciating the quality of discussion here, and hoping it continues. Thanks.) P.S. Not sure why the downvotes, but ok. As far as I recall, there are many past cases where the use of URL shorteners has been discouraged. Somewhat akin to the advice to stick [PDF] in the submission title for links to PDF files. People don't like surprises. Or, in my case, mystery links.
hinkley 8y ago
Yeah but Carlin also said that us thinking we were powerful enough to cause global warming was pure arrogance.
- mattnewton 8y ago
  I remember him saying that thinking we were going to save the planet was pure arrogance- we were trying to save ourselves, because “the planet isn’t going anywhere- we are. Pack your shit” He seemed to be pretty supportive of the idea that climate change was man made. And maybe we ought to rebrand saving the environment as saving our property and arable land and it will resonate more with some skeptics. Because Carlin was right: this rock we call earth will continue orbiting the sun without us, but “we’re f*ed”
  - gowld 8y ago
    That's what the word "environment" means. We aren't trying to saving the Earth for its own sake, we're saving the environment we live in because we need it for our own survival.
    - derefr 8y ago
      No, the word for the parts we use is “habitat.”
      - plussed_reader 8y ago
        And carbon emissions are such good little molecules, always following our arbitrary boundaries. /s
        dang 8y ago
        Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?
  - raws 8y ago
    There's also making sure that we leave a thriving environment when we leave no?
bad_user 8y ago
> Epoxy resins may very well have created the Diabetes epidemic, with genetic data backing it. That’s a ridiculous claim. The reason for the diabetes epidemic has much more to do with the increase in sugar consumption than anything else, even if other factors might have contributed, like vegetable oils or the decrease in salt consumption. Throughout history people have gone to great lengths to exonerate sugar when the evidence is there in plain sight since early 1900s. No, it’s not the plastics and the diabetes epidemic isn’t that new ;-)
- gowld 8y ago
  Do you have any comments refuting the science of the article, or is your fiat declaration sufficient to resolve the issue?
  - Alex63 8y ago
    The article makes no claims, scientific of otherwise, with respect to a "diabetes epidemic" and the possible role of plastics. "A separate study by the University of York in Britain that sought to assess the risks of microplastics to the environment, published Wednesday, concluded not enough is known to determine if microplastics cause harm." Both comments are expressing opinions that have nothing to do with the content of the article.
    - tzs 8y ago
      > The article makes no claims, scientific of otherwise, with respect to a "diabetes epidemic" and the possible role of plastics Wrong article. You are talking about the submitted article. He's talking about the article cited in subcosmos' comment.
  - rhacker 8y ago
    I'm at the point in my life where I treat 99% of studies with a grain of salt. I've seen studies that we've held up for 45 years to be completely toppled. Even studies that are holding in the last 5 years where our current generation is "perfect" and doesn't make the same scientific blunders of yesteryear. Our stories in science classes of how "bad scientists" that ended up being right were killed is no different today. It's just that instead of the king calling for an execution our own subjects dismiss them. If you watch things carefully in the scientific world you'll notice that there are actually really just a couple people holding up claims and making millions of others follow suit. Even in the face of challenging data, we wait for the so called thought leaders to either embrace or reject the new information. If they reject it, so do the hordes. Yet how do we know these few are willing to take on the new information, and actually take it seriously, especially when so much money might be on the line for them. Humans keep saying they learn from their mistakes, but we don't as it always looks different. Instead of a king's desk it's now an iPad and online forum. It really takes generational shifts for our science to move. I think too that the reason pop-science and alternative medicine is so successful is because regular science is too quick to hold the wrong things up - they are holding up people not results. And that's our failure.
i88y6 8y ago
H2O is deadly in high enough doses.
neuronexmachina 8y ago
Interesting fact: BPA/epoxy resins are the active component of the thermal paper used in many receipts. Handling BPA paper results in a rise in BPA level in urine detectable after 1 week. https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i35/Touching-thermal-paper-receipts-extend.html https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i35/Touching-thermal-paper-r...
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  Thermal paper is toxic, and you should avoid handling it whenever possible. It is only a matter of time before it's banned due to its BPA content (which may, fingers crossed, accelerate the advent of digital receipts). DO NOT use hand sanitizer before or after handling thermal paper; it speeds the absorption of BPA.
  - King-Aaron 8y ago
    > DO NOT use hand sanitizer before or after handling thermal paper; it speeds the absorption of BPA. Do you have a source on that? I'm certainly not disputing it. I'm just fascinated.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110509 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1832525 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1832525
- sizzle 8y ago
  This makes me wonder what off the shelf products are disrupting our biochemical pathways and if we should assume everything has the ability to, from home improvement projects to inhaling particles in the air from smoggy city. Any thoughts? This stuff is terrifying to say the least...
  - Regardsyjc 8y ago
crescentfresh 8y ago
Off topic, but I don't enjoy listening to Carlin. I feel like he must be an acquired taste because he's so loved. He's called the inspiration of many of my own favorite comedians, but when I listen to him to me he sounds like a really smart and insightful/philosophical person....rambling angrily. His sets don't set me up for a tension-breaking punchline like my brain expects. End ramble.
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  That makes sense to me. He is from a different time when there was just less audible chaos being pumped into our lives. You could easily go a whole day without someone throwing a hyper-edited escalating sonic experience at you. Now, after decades of movie trailers one-upping each other and those editing capabilities being distributed to teenagers, we are maximally sonically marinated and we expect some politeness when people are trying to deliver sound bites. In Carlin’s time watching an act like his was possibly the most exciting verbal experience you would be exposed to that week, if not that year. We cherished the performers who could dial up to 12 without losing coherence because it was rare and exciting. Now it sounds overblown and maybe a little aggressive to a modern ear.
- twiceaday 8y ago
  For what its worth, you are describing Carlins newer specials. His career spanned over 40 years. And yeah look at the shift in tone just from the names of his HBO specials 1977 On Location: George Carlin at USC 1978 George Carlin: Again! 1982 Carlin at Carnegie 1984 Carlin on Campus 1986 Playin' with Your Head 1988 What Am I Doing in New Jersey? 1990 Doin' It Again 1992 Jammin' in New York 1996 Back in Town ------------------------- 1999 You Are All Diseased 2001 Complaints and Grievances 2005 Life Is Worth Losing 2008 It's Bad for Ya If you are interested, check out his older stuff like Carlin on Campus. "A Place for My Stuff" [1] for example. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
- drblast 8y ago
  Listen to "Class Clown." It's an earlier recording and he was extremely mellow and funny. His later stuff was kinda funny at the time but has not aged well at all comedy-wise IMO.
strainer 8y ago
That old Carlin routine - "let species go extinct cause thats what they do / environmentalists aren't interested in saving the environment ..." seems to be presenting these attitudes as words to the wise. I get the feeling most of the audience took it that way. Is that right?
pcurve 8y ago
"it wanted plastic for itself" never fails to make me laugh. @5:35 "plastic. assholes"

milesokeefe 8y ago

Non-shortened: [0] https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plastic-measures-500cdf1fe528 https://medium.com/@InfinoMe/diabetes-time-to-resort-to-plas... [1] https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/teflon-and-perfluorooctanoic-acid-pfoa.html https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/teflon-and-perfl...

pasbesoin 8y ago
Thank you. I agree, and I seem to recall other comments to this effect, in the past. The guidelines don't specifically mention URL shorteners, but they do ask posters to supply original sources: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter. Personally, and as a suggestion for this site, I would extend that to ask that sources not be hidden behind a URL shortener. I want to see where I'm going; I also don't appreciate my click being tracked. I go "meta" on HN only reluctantly. But, I've noticed the increasing volume of comments on HN, and it seems worthwhile mentioning that HN has some different expectations than other sites. Expectations that have helped to keep the commentary elevated and on point, up to now. (I'm just another poster, here. The only basis for my comment is appreciating the quality of discussion here, and hoping it continues. Thanks.) P.S. Not sure why the downvotes, but ok. As far as I recall, there are many past cases where the use of URL shorteners has been discouraged. Somewhat akin to the advice to stick [PDF] in the submission title for links to PDF files. People don't like surprises. Or, in my case, mystery links.

hinkley 8y ago

Yeah but Carlin also said that us thinking we were powerful enough to cause global warming was pure arrogance.

mattnewton 8y ago
I remember him saying that thinking we were going to save the planet was pure arrogance- we were trying to save ourselves, because “the planet isn’t going anywhere- we are. Pack your shit” He seemed to be pretty supportive of the idea that climate change was man made. And maybe we ought to rebrand saving the environment as saving our property and arable land and it will resonate more with some skeptics. Because Carlin was right: this rock we call earth will continue orbiting the sun without us, but “we’re f*ed”
- gowld 8y ago
  That's what the word "environment" means. We aren't trying to saving the Earth for its own sake, we're saving the environment we live in because we need it for our own survival.
  - derefr 8y ago
    No, the word for the parts we use is “habitat.”
    - plussed_reader 8y ago
      And carbon emissions are such good little molecules, always following our arbitrary boundaries. /s
      - dang 8y ago
        Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?
- raws 8y ago
  There's also making sure that we leave a thriving environment when we leave no?

bad_user 8y ago

> Epoxy resins may very well have created the Diabetes epidemic, with genetic data backing it. That’s a ridiculous claim. The reason for the diabetes epidemic has much more to do with the increase in sugar consumption than anything else, even if other factors might have contributed, like vegetable oils or the decrease in salt consumption. Throughout history people have gone to great lengths to exonerate sugar when the evidence is there in plain sight since early 1900s. No, it’s not the plastics and the diabetes epidemic isn’t that new ;-)

gowld 8y ago
Do you have any comments refuting the science of the article, or is your fiat declaration sufficient to resolve the issue?
- Alex63 8y ago
  The article makes no claims, scientific of otherwise, with respect to a "diabetes epidemic" and the possible role of plastics. "A separate study by the University of York in Britain that sought to assess the risks of microplastics to the environment, published Wednesday, concluded not enough is known to determine if microplastics cause harm." Both comments are expressing opinions that have nothing to do with the content of the article.
  - tzs 8y ago
    > The article makes no claims, scientific of otherwise, with respect to a "diabetes epidemic" and the possible role of plastics Wrong article. You are talking about the submitted article. He's talking about the article cited in subcosmos' comment.
- rhacker 8y ago
  I'm at the point in my life where I treat 99% of studies with a grain of salt. I've seen studies that we've held up for 45 years to be completely toppled. Even studies that are holding in the last 5 years where our current generation is "perfect" and doesn't make the same scientific blunders of yesteryear. Our stories in science classes of how "bad scientists" that ended up being right were killed is no different today. It's just that instead of the king calling for an execution our own subjects dismiss them. If you watch things carefully in the scientific world you'll notice that there are actually really just a couple people holding up claims and making millions of others follow suit. Even in the face of challenging data, we wait for the so called thought leaders to either embrace or reject the new information. If they reject it, so do the hordes. Yet how do we know these few are willing to take on the new information, and actually take it seriously, especially when so much money might be on the line for them. Humans keep saying they learn from their mistakes, but we don't as it always looks different. Instead of a king's desk it's now an iPad and online forum. It really takes generational shifts for our science to move. I think too that the reason pop-science and alternative medicine is so successful is because regular science is too quick to hold the wrong things up - they are holding up people not results. And that's our failure.

i88y6 8y ago

H2O is deadly in high enough doses.

neuronexmachina 8y ago

Interesting fact: BPA/epoxy resins are the active component of the thermal paper used in many receipts. Handling BPA paper results in a rise in BPA level in urine detectable after 1 week. https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i35/Touching-thermal-paper-receipts-extend.html https://cen.acs.org/articles/95/i35/Touching-thermal-paper-r...

toomuchtodo 8y ago
Thermal paper is toxic, and you should avoid handling it whenever possible. It is only a matter of time before it's banned due to its BPA content (which may, fingers crossed, accelerate the advent of digital receipts). DO NOT use hand sanitizer before or after handling thermal paper; it speeds the absorption of BPA.
- King-Aaron 8y ago
  > DO NOT use hand sanitizer before or after handling thermal paper; it speeds the absorption of BPA. Do you have a source on that? I'm certainly not disputing it. I'm just fascinated.
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0110509 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1832525 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1832525
sizzle 8y ago
This makes me wonder what off the shelf products are disrupting our biochemical pathways and if we should assume everything has the ability to, from home improvement projects to inhaling particles in the air from smoggy city. Any thoughts? This stuff is terrifying to say the least...
- Regardsyjc 8y ago

crescentfresh 8y ago

Off topic, but I don't enjoy listening to Carlin. I feel like he must be an acquired taste because he's so loved. He's called the inspiration of many of my own favorite comedians, but when I listen to him to me he sounds like a really smart and insightful/philosophical person....rambling angrily. His sets don't set me up for a tension-breaking punchline like my brain expects. End ramble.

erikpukinskis 8y ago
That makes sense to me. He is from a different time when there was just less audible chaos being pumped into our lives. You could easily go a whole day without someone throwing a hyper-edited escalating sonic experience at you. Now, after decades of movie trailers one-upping each other and those editing capabilities being distributed to teenagers, we are maximally sonically marinated and we expect some politeness when people are trying to deliver sound bites. In Carlin’s time watching an act like his was possibly the most exciting verbal experience you would be exposed to that week, if not that year. We cherished the performers who could dial up to 12 without losing coherence because it was rare and exciting. Now it sounds overblown and maybe a little aggressive to a modern ear.
twiceaday 8y ago
For what its worth, you are describing Carlins newer specials. His career spanned over 40 years. And yeah look at the shift in tone just from the names of his HBO specials 1977 On Location: George Carlin at USC 1978 George Carlin: Again! 1982 Carlin at Carnegie 1984 Carlin on Campus 1986 Playin' with Your Head 1988 What Am I Doing in New Jersey? 1990 Doin' It Again 1992 Jammin' in New York 1996 Back in Town ------------------------- 1999 You Are All Diseased 2001 Complaints and Grievances 2005 Life Is Worth Losing 2008 It's Bad for Ya If you are interested, check out his older stuff like Carlin on Campus. "A Place for My Stuff" [1] for example. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac
drblast 8y ago
Listen to "Class Clown." It's an earlier recording and he was extremely mellow and funny. His later stuff was kinda funny at the time but has not aged well at all comedy-wise IMO.

strainer 8y ago

That old Carlin routine - "let species go extinct cause thats what they do / environmentalists aren't interested in saving the environment ..." seems to be presenting these attitudes as words to the wise. I get the feeling most of the audience took it that way. Is that right?

pcurve 8y ago

"it wanted plastic for itself" never fails to make me laugh. @5:35 "plastic. assholes"