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Really?? From all the comments about this idea/execution/etc, this is what you chose to focus your attention on?!

marknutter 13y ago
Welcome to Hacker News!
sp332 13y ago
Yes, a claim that 0.2% of the world population dies every year from their own stoves caught my attention. The WHO report is striking to me, because that's a lot of people dying from causes they don't understand and don't see coming.
- ModusPonies 13y ago
  0.02%, actually, but your point stands.
  - sp332 13y ago
    Ah man, I even double-checked and still messed up :p
trebor 13y ago
It's a pretty important fact. If the creator is trying to justify the adoption of Soylent as a meal replacement by using this fact (obviously not by itself) then they need to be careful to use facts clearly. The phrasing in the pitch blames 2 million deaths upon indoor cooking, which is inaccurate.
DanBC 13y ago
Soylent got a fact wrong. Either they deliberately misreported something; in which case they're lying while trying to raise money. Or they made a mistake. And if they get something this simple wrong why should I trust them when they're making something that I'm supposed to be able to live on?
- volandovengo 13y ago
  I was mostly commenting on the state of commenting on hackernews. Somebody comes out with an idea to drastically transform the way that we consume food + the top comment, at the time, was about one small detail in his vid. Is it wrong to ridicule that kind of comment?
  - sp332 13y ago
    Oh, this project has been on HN several times before, so I guess my brain filtered out all the old information I already knew.
  - DanBC 13y ago
    > Somebody comes out with an idea to drastically transform the way that we consume food No. Liquid feed has existed for a long time. You can walk to a shop and buy it. There's a small convenience store across the road from me selling it next to coca cola and pepsi. We are polite to people who are sincere, even if they are foolish and ignorant. We are rude to people who are engaged in blatantly dangerous scamming.
- dvanduzer 13y ago
  PBS and Science Magazine allegedly got some facts wrong. Regardless, the WHO is talking about three billion indoor fires in primitive homes. In most of these cases, there is no distinction between a "cooking stove" and "heating stove" and whether these families require heating year round or not, cooking is not a seasonal activity. Splitting hairs on this point is dumb, though. The point of citing it at all is to illustrate how big they are thinking. They want to solve the entire world's food problem. Isn't that scale of vision why we're all here?
  - prodigal_erik 13y ago
    Soylent is not going to reduce the death toll from indoor stoves if those people have to continue using their stoves to stay warm (even if not also to cook). To make grandiose claims is to risk undermining legitimate ones.
  - 13y ago

Welcome to Hacker News!

sp332 13y ago

Yes, a claim that 0.2% of the world population dies every year from their own stoves caught my attention. The WHO report is striking to me, because that's a lot of people dying from causes they don't understand and don't see coming.

ModusPonies 13y ago
0.02%, actually, but your point stands.
- sp332 13y ago
  Ah man, I even double-checked and still messed up :p

trebor 13y ago

It's a pretty important fact. If the creator is trying to justify the adoption of Soylent as a meal replacement by using this fact (obviously not by itself) then they need to be careful to use facts clearly. The phrasing in the pitch blames 2 million deaths upon indoor cooking, which is inaccurate.

DanBC 13y ago

Soylent got a fact wrong. Either they deliberately misreported something; in which case they're lying while trying to raise money. Or they made a mistake. And if they get something this simple wrong why should I trust them when they're making something that I'm supposed to be able to live on?

volandovengo 13y ago
I was mostly commenting on the state of commenting on hackernews. Somebody comes out with an idea to drastically transform the way that we consume food + the top comment, at the time, was about one small detail in his vid. Is it wrong to ridicule that kind of comment?
- sp332 13y ago
  Oh, this project has been on HN several times before, so I guess my brain filtered out all the old information I already knew.
- DanBC 13y ago
  > Somebody comes out with an idea to drastically transform the way that we consume food No. Liquid feed has existed for a long time. You can walk to a shop and buy it. There's a small convenience store across the road from me selling it next to coca cola and pepsi. We are polite to people who are sincere, even if they are foolish and ignorant. We are rude to people who are engaged in blatantly dangerous scamming.
dvanduzer 13y ago
PBS and Science Magazine allegedly got some facts wrong. Regardless, the WHO is talking about three billion indoor fires in primitive homes. In most of these cases, there is no distinction between a "cooking stove" and "heating stove" and whether these families require heating year round or not, cooking is not a seasonal activity. Splitting hairs on this point is dumb, though. The point of citing it at all is to illustrate how big they are thinking. They want to solve the entire world's food problem. Isn't that scale of vision why we're all here?
- prodigal_erik 13y ago
  Soylent is not going to reduce the death toll from indoor stoves if those people have to continue using their stoves to stay warm (even if not also to cook). To make grandiose claims is to risk undermining legitimate ones.
- 13y ago