Before the vitamin D link was so widely reported, I remember seeing a bunch of comments online (including HN) from people saying things along the lines of "We've been self-isolating at home since January, only bought things online, and STILL got sick!"
I'm not a professional and this is just me spouting ideas, but I wonder if this is one reason why America is so hard hit compared to Asia. Americans generally commute by car, stay in a massive building complex all day for work, and go home and stay inside. In Asia, a huge proportion of people commute by foot, train (which involves walking to the station), or scooter. Then they walk to a grocery store or restaurant to get some food. I wonder if those minutes of continuous sun exposure add up and lighten the severity of it.
That wouldn't account for places like Spain and Italy that are both sunny and more pedestrian friendly that were hit harder than the US though.
The theory that makes the most sense to me is that East Asia has had exposure to past viruses that were similar in nature but less lethal.
> Tatsuhiko Kodama of the University of Tokyo said preliminary studies show that Japanese people’s immune systems tend to react to the novel coronavirus as though they had previous exposure, and notes that there are centuries of history of coronaviruses emerging from East Asia.[1]
Asia is a big place. In some densely populated areas in Asia most people live in bubbles, moving from air conditioned condos to taxis/subways to offices and then malls. They spend as little time as possible in the open due to pollution, weather and a cultural aversion to tanning. As a result, vitamin D deficiency is very common.
Some examples for Thailand are included in this paper[1]. One study said this: "Soontrapa et al. [15] evaluated vitamin D status in a younger group of premenopausal women found the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency to be 77.8%, which was as high as the rate found in elderly Thai women living in nursing homes."
There is lots of sun in Thailand, but people avoid it as much as possible, staying indoors and applying lots of sunscreen if they must go out.
you can sanity-check your suspicion by looking at the data across countries. peru, spain, mexico and brazil should be enough to show that your idea is probably not correct
> It's fascinating to me hearing about how Hong Kong and Tokyo have similar cost of living to even some of the most expensive metros in the US
It's truly fascinating because I've never seen a city in Japan that costs anywhere near as much as some podunk local economic hub in the US, yet I hear these "it's too expensive" stories all the time.
My combined monthly expenses in a city--rent, food, and everything--comes to maybe $1200. My mind is blown whenever I hear people say they're struggling to pay for things or life is too expensive. The main thing I've noticed is most of these people are going to bars/izakaya several times a week, and it's easy to spend $50+ for a small meal and some beers there. I know people in Tokyo making far less than Western wages but still living very comfortably.
But in-city rent in Japan doesn't even approach a typical 500k population city in the US , unless you're insisting on living in the middle of the most in demand parts of Shibuya or something.
Lol, I have a couple friend, 3 kids, living in Los Altos, they said combined they think they make $800k a year. They can't afford to live their !?!?!?!?!?
Being taught something != actually feeling something. You can say "that's bad" and people will repeat after you in agreement. Doesn't mean the voice in the back of their mind actually agrees or can just flip like a switch. Decades of thinking that are slowly ironed in don't just go away in an instant.
It didn't flip a switch for me because I never had any bias against someone for their accent. My question is why has this false, irrational belief about accents persisted for so long in America? There are tons of people in this thread talking about their bias, and I don't understand what led them to that state of mind in the first place.
The article is about this being a global phenomenon, with emphasis on France and the UK. Weird to believe that this is any worse in America than it is anywhere else.
It's human nature to have an in-group and out-group. Sometimes it's as simple as language. Generally, anyone who claims they have absolutely no bias against X people for Y characteristic aren't aware of their own biases.
> Anyone who pretends they have no bias against X people for Y characteristic just isn't aware of their own biases.
Bias is easier to mitigate when you ignore any generalization about any large group of people, such as a linguistic group. Human nature is no excuse for having delusions about an accent.
> The USA is an absolute paradise for an immigrant.
This is really the key point.
When immigrating to a country, you’re already taking a huge risk. You’re leaving behind extended family. You’re generally a little more well off than a typical person in your home country. You’re not really bound down by debt histories (who’s going to collect when you’re 5000 miles away and your bank accounts are out of reach?). Your debt future isn’t as much of a concern (who’s going to collect if you just pack up and go home without telling anyone?) Your past work experience and education experience isn’t as much of a concern because nobody is going to call up a former employer in a foreign country or look up transcripts or know anything about the reputation of foreign schools. You’re generally willing to take bigger risks because you’ve already taken a huge one by up and leaving your old lifestyle, and you also abandon a bunch of your burdens.
A bunch of people will say their home country doesn’t have great opportunities, but America does. 100% of the time, without exception, there’s an American living in that country making shitloads of money because being an immigrant there presents unique opportunities and they’re laughing at people saying America would be better.
Saying this as someone who immigrated to a country outside of America.
Opportunities exist everywhere, but your argument is not cohesive and it’s insulting; Immigrants don’t see the value proposition of the USA as no debts and a blank slate. In fact, a lot of them lose out because their previous achievements are not recognized by the foreigners.
And the parent comment saying Americans who aren't out there being entrepreneurs and starting businesses are "drowning themselves in self-pity" is insulting.
When I immigrated, I left behind tangible proof of my achievements, but I could've also completely bullshitted my history and instantly jumped into a higher level than was possible in my old country. It's also virtually risk-free should I fail. So long as I have enough money for a plane ticket home, I can just leave and there's zero long term consequence. This is incredibly common for westerners in Asia to do. It's also not uncommon for non-Americans to move to the US to instantly get a leg up in work with some companies really giving preferential treatment to things like H1Bs, then going back home with a larger savings and better opportunities to actually get started as an entrepreneur.
Americans who only have America don't have those massive privileges.
Absolutely. Their comment reeks of privilege but people are too unaware so you get downvoted with no engagement, no one can articulate why you are wrong. We are absolutely fucked. These are the geniuses building the tools being flogged to our society as the ‘future’.
Those mostly don't really seem positive. Future debt isn't a concern... because no one will give a loan to someone with no credit history. No past work or education experience will make it harder, not easier to get a job.
Being well off is positive, but if you're well off in a less-developed country, you'll actually be less well off in the US because of the higher cost of living here. So immigrating made that worse.
They feel like they're designed to optimize discomfort.
There are really only two ways I can sit in them. One is that just one small point of my head makes contact, and my back is perfectly straight and doesn't make contact with the seat. The other is that I do rest my head against it, but I'm bending my head down at a 45 degree angle and it feels like my neck is about to snap.
If I’m outside and doing something all day, or I’m really involved in reading a book or painting something, over half a day will pass before I realize I forgot to eat breakfast.
But if I’m relaxing, wasting time on the internet, or not really doing much, I get an urge to grab a snack or have a glass of milk that’ll hit me once an hour.
"Dopamine boredom" is a thing. There's a pasticular qualia associated with my ADHD meds wearing off that feels not unlike a combination of tired and hungry, even after I've eaten. What clued me in was my go-to binge in this state: chocolate (xanthines, fat a sugar). I wonder how easily others can learn "I'm not hungry, I'm understimulated"
>subsidized by hundreds of millions in VC funding for almost a decade
That hasn't stopped any company from total collapse before and it won't now. Other social media sites have people somewhat locked in since it's all about staying in contact with friends and following certain people. You need to push the entire crowd at once to have a good replacement, but those sites still die when they screw up enough. Reddit's a place where people mostly read comments, see some funny pictures or news, and then go about their day. There's a lot less keeping people from dropping it and moving on.
Wearing masks, like hand washing, has limited benefits if most people aren't doing it. Vaccines are also far more effective if a large number of people get them.
Studies comparing populations with almost 100% mask wearing and countries with almost no masks would make for a better comparison.
My current game dev project is being done with relatively low poly models and non-realistic textures. I've tried adding higher levels of detail to the game, but gave up pretty early on. Unless it looks great and stylized, highly detailed art that's just okay ends up looking cheaper than intentionally simple and under-detailed art. I ended up settling on something a little bit above Sega Saturn style and I'm feeling immersed in my own test levels.
Whenever I see a game with super detailed forests and houses and human models, it's almost impossible to get interested in it. It's too real and bland. Maybe it's a mental association from seeing a bunch of cheap Russian and Chinese games on Steam that use premade assets.
I'm not a professional and this is just me spouting ideas, but I wonder if this is one reason why America is so hard hit compared to Asia. Americans generally commute by car, stay in a massive building complex all day for work, and go home and stay inside. In Asia, a huge proportion of people commute by foot, train (which involves walking to the station), or scooter. Then they walk to a grocery store or restaurant to get some food. I wonder if those minutes of continuous sun exposure add up and lighten the severity of it.