5 ms·

"The maxim trends towards being universally true" I realize it is a little pedantic but I think it is reasonable when an encyclopedia article contains a line l

by dfc 14y ago

"The maxim trends towards being universally true" I realize it is a little pedantic but I think it is reasonable when an encyclopedia article contains a line like that. After three or four minutes on the terrible NYT and Washington Post advanced article search I found the following: Who Will Be Next to Call Nuclear Energy Indispensable? http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/who-will-be-next-to-call-nuclear-energy-indispensable/?scp=6&sq=&st=nyt http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/who-will-be-n... Who Made Those Fingerprints? http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/magazine/who-made-those-fingerprints.html?_r=1&scp=10&sq=&st=nyt http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/10/magazine/who-made-those-fi... When Should Juvenile Offenders Receive Life Sentences? http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/when-should-juvenile-offenders-receive-life-sentences/?scp=1&sq=&st=nyt http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/when-should-juv... Who Should Teach Our Children? http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/who-should-teach-our-children/?scp=15&sq=&st=nyt http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/who-should-t... What is IPv6 and Why Does It Matter? http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/what-is-ipv6-and-why-does-it-matter/2012/06/06/gJQAbClTIV_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/what-is-ip... In light of a comment about NYT / Washington Post being off topic to HN and or scoped to assertions only: Is It Worth It Being Wise? http://www.paulgraham.com/wisdom.html http://www.paulgraham.com/wisdom.html Could VC Be a Casualty of the Recession? http://www.paulgraham.com/divergence.html http://www.paulgraham.com/divergence.html

georgiabiker2 14y ago
He should have said any headline that is a yes or no question.
- dools 14y ago
  That wouldn't have been as good a headline.
- jere 14y ago
  That's implied in the law: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'". If it wasn't a yes/no question, you couldn't reasonably answer "no".
coderdude 14y ago
Given how often these light and frothy publications appear on HN you would think that they have their fingers on the pulse of the "hacker community."
- dfc 14y ago
  I am not sure what you are talking about?
  - coderdude 14y ago
    I'm using this as an opportunity to complain about seeing the NYT and friends on here so often. This is somewhat related to the fact that they also have vote-bait headlines.
    - dfc 14y ago
      That is what I was guessing you meant, but I have never heard anyone say the NYT or Washington Post were frothy examples of newspapers. And it did not seem relevant because the wikipedia page that pg submitted is not expressly about HN culture. However in order to cover all my bases I added two of pg's own essay titles/headlines to the list to make sure it meets your HN notability requirements.
      - coderdude 14y ago
        I intended that to mean "light and frothy general technology news." As I understand it they're respected for the journalism they do but I don't think half of it belongs here.
        deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
        coderdude 14y ago
        I'm fairly positive that I didn't imply anything like that. You're the one who keeps bringing the guy up.
chc 14y ago
Yes, that is quite pedantic. It is clear from the article that Betteridge meant headlines that could be phrased assertively but are not (i.e. yes-or-no questions). And the word "universal" is generally scoped to some domain — if we say "living human brings universally have some cardiac organ, whether natural or man-made", that does not extend to dead human beings or to rocks. In this case, the domain is, as noted above, newspaper newspaper headlines that question an assertion.
- dfc 14y ago
  Your domain was scoped by the "living human brings(sic)," that is why it is clear that dead people or rocks where irrelevant. I have always taken universally to mean as wide of a scope as possible. I was not sure where you where referring to when you said "as noted above?" The two pg essays I linked to could have been an assertion but the answer did not seem to be no, but I could be wrong. From the quick essays of pg's that I read he seemed to use the question mark for pieces that required a much more nuanced answer than yes or no.
cperciva 14y ago
In many countries, the question "When Should Juvenile Offenders Receive Life Sentences?" is in fact simply "no".
cheatercheater 14y ago
I don't like the links you posted. It would be much better to find headlines which can be answered "NO" but, according to the text are answered "yes".

by dfc 14y ago

georgiabiker2 14y ago

He should have said any headline that is a yes or no question.

dools 14y ago
That wouldn't have been as good a headline.
jere 14y ago
That's implied in the law: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'". If it wasn't a yes/no question, you couldn't reasonably answer "no".

coderdude 14y ago

Given how often these light and frothy publications appear on HN you would think that they have their fingers on the pulse of the "hacker community."

dfc 14y ago
I am not sure what you are talking about?
- coderdude 14y ago
  I'm using this as an opportunity to complain about seeing the NYT and friends on here so often. This is somewhat related to the fact that they also have vote-bait headlines.
  - dfc 14y ago
    That is what I was guessing you meant, but I have never heard anyone say the NYT or Washington Post were frothy examples of newspapers. And it did not seem relevant because the wikipedia page that pg submitted is not expressly about HN culture. However in order to cover all my bases I added two of pg's own essay titles/headlines to the list to make sure it meets your HN notability requirements.
    - coderdude 14y ago
      I intended that to mean "light and frothy general technology news." As I understand it they're respected for the journalism they do but I don't think half of it belongs here.
      - deleted 14y ago
        [deleted]
        coderdude 14y ago
        I'm fairly positive that I didn't imply anything like that. You're the one who keeps bringing the guy up.

chc 14y ago

Yes, that is quite pedantic. It is clear from the article that Betteridge meant headlines that could be phrased assertively but are not (i.e. yes-or-no questions). And the word "universal" is generally scoped to some domain — if we say "living human brings universally have some cardiac organ, whether natural or man-made", that does not extend to dead human beings or to rocks. In this case, the domain is, as noted above, newspaper newspaper headlines that question an assertion.

dfc 14y ago
Your domain was scoped by the "living human brings(sic)," that is why it is clear that dead people or rocks where irrelevant. I have always taken universally to mean as wide of a scope as possible. I was not sure where you where referring to when you said "as noted above?" The two pg essays I linked to could have been an assertion but the answer did not seem to be no, but I could be wrong. From the quick essays of pg's that I read he seemed to use the question mark for pieces that required a much more nuanced answer than yes or no.

cperciva 14y ago

In many countries, the question "When Should Juvenile Offenders Receive Life Sentences?" is in fact simply "no".

cheatercheater 14y ago

I don't like the links you posted. It would be much better to find headlines which can be answered "NO" but, according to the text are answered "yes".