3 ms·

Just to get an impression for the scale, the paper that is linked in the article shows that there were ~40000 deaths due to overdose in 2010 and a bit more than

Just to get an impression for the scale, the paper that is linked in the article shows that there were ~40000 deaths due to overdose in 2010 and a bit more than 100000 deaths in 2021. So this is not just fentanyl becoming a larger part of the portion of deaths, but a very significant increase in total deaths as well.

simonebrunozzi 3y ago
Minor nitpick: when you provide figures in the multiple thousands, it really improves readability if you use the thousand separator (40000 -> 40,000, and even more so 100000 -> 100,000). Thanks.
- rawgabbit 3y ago
  To be fair in many parts of the world 40000 and 100000 is written like this 40.000 and 100.000. So it may confuse non Americans.
  - stvltvs 3y ago
    I've seen a trend of using spaces (40 000) for this reason.
  - lr1970 3y ago
    Let's use Python unambiguous notation with underscores 100_000 or 40_000.
  - fabian2k 3y ago
    Yes, I don't really use thousands separators because I use both number systems regularly and the ambiguity annoys me. It's not a practical issue in this case I think as almost everyone would assume US numbers here. But they feel weird to me somehow. I have used spaces at times as a thousands separator, but that might be even more confusing.
    - tzs 3y ago
      Spaces is actually an international standard, as part of SI, for scientific writing. If a numerical value has more than 4 digits on either side of the decimal marker, make groups of three using a thin fixed space. For the decimal marker "." and "," are both acceptable. Use whichever is appropriate for your country or for where you readers are or whatever. Unicode U+2009 (thin space) or U+202F (narrow no-break space) are good for this, but unfortunately neither of them are among the Unicode that works on HN. HN converts them on input to a normal space. E.g., 12 345 (space), 12 345 (U+2009), and 12 345 (U+202F) are all the same on HN. That wasn't always the case. I'm not sure when they started filtering these out on input, but 6 years ago I posted a comment where I pasted in some text demonstrating various Unicode spaces [1], and that works so the change was sometime in the last 6 years. Note: it only works for me in Chrome. In Firefox and Safari the browser changes them all to normal space. I don't know if that is just something peculiar to my Firefox and Safari installations or if Chrome just does Unicode better than they do. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16194485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16194485
- rokkitmensch 3y ago
  Can't get confused with the traditional notation either! Your options are to demarcate by -illion (40e3, 100e3) or by order of magnitude (4e4, 1e5). Commas and periods perpetuate cultural ambiguity and waste characters.

simonebrunozzi 3y ago

Minor nitpick: when you provide figures in the multiple thousands, it really improves readability if you use the thousand separator (40000 -> 40,000, and even more so 100000 -> 100,000). Thanks.

rawgabbit 3y ago
To be fair in many parts of the world 40000 and 100000 is written like this 40.000 and 100.000. So it may confuse non Americans.
- stvltvs 3y ago
  I've seen a trend of using spaces (40 000) for this reason.
- lr1970 3y ago
  Let's use Python unambiguous notation with underscores 100_000 or 40_000.
- fabian2k 3y ago
  Yes, I don't really use thousands separators because I use both number systems regularly and the ambiguity annoys me. It's not a practical issue in this case I think as almost everyone would assume US numbers here. But they feel weird to me somehow. I have used spaces at times as a thousands separator, but that might be even more confusing.
  - tzs 3y ago
    Spaces is actually an international standard, as part of SI, for scientific writing. If a numerical value has more than 4 digits on either side of the decimal marker, make groups of three using a thin fixed space. For the decimal marker "." and "," are both acceptable. Use whichever is appropriate for your country or for where you readers are or whatever. Unicode U+2009 (thin space) or U+202F (narrow no-break space) are good for this, but unfortunately neither of them are among the Unicode that works on HN. HN converts them on input to a normal space. E.g., 12 345 (space), 12 345 (U+2009), and 12 345 (U+202F) are all the same on HN. That wasn't always the case. I'm not sure when they started filtering these out on input, but 6 years ago I posted a comment where I pasted in some text demonstrating various Unicode spaces [1], and that works so the change was sometime in the last 6 years. Note: it only works for me in Chrome. In Firefox and Safari the browser changes them all to normal space. I don't know if that is just something peculiar to my Firefox and Safari installations or if Chrome just does Unicode better than they do. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16194485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16194485
rokkitmensch 3y ago
Can't get confused with the traditional notation either! Your options are to demarcate by -illion (40e3, 100e3) or by order of magnitude (4e4, 1e5). Commas and periods perpetuate cultural ambiguity and waste characters.