Hacker News: SpaceFarmer

New comment by SpaceFarmer in "Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price"

SpaceFarmer — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:35:29 +0000

I wish someone would do this for the pickup truck market. Lol, like make a truck for people that actually want to use it just for hauling things. Kind of like trucks used to be in the 1960's and 1970's. Not the modern ones that are more like a luxury SUV that happens to have a tiny truck bed in the back.

New comment by SpaceFarmer in "Radioactive Tape Dispenser (1970s)"

SpaceFarmer — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 19:51:25 +0000

I know what you mean! I found a random field like 20 miles from my house where the radioactivity was like 100x normal due to Thorium in the dirt. How many spots like that have a house built over them and no one knows? Here is my webpage with a video of the field visit. https://hunterwlong.com/mapping-radiation-with-a-raspberry-p...

New comment by SpaceFarmer in "Spot the Drowning Child (2015)"

SpaceFarmer — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 16:17:09 +0000

Another thing I've always wondered, why does it seem that all animals innately know how to swim, even young ones?

Maybe it is just that most have 4 legs and that helps, but I'd guess monkeys know how to swim too. Not sure. I mean even snakes know how to swim haha.

What makes people so bad at swimming? Our big heads?

New comment by SpaceFarmer in "Spot the Drowning Child (2015)"

SpaceFarmer — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:35:25 +0000

I have 4 young kids and really appreciate this video. My wife and I have tried to teach each of them to swim at an early age because drowning is SO SILENT! Once we were at a local park lake with my daughter who really young. She was in like 1-2 feet of water, and we were both within 5 feet of her watching as intently as possible. Suddenly a little girl playing next to her said something like "are you ok?" which made us look and see our daughter's face was underwater and she was drowning. The whole thing lasted like 10 seconds, but it was still really scary. I think we would have seen in time regardless, but the fact that we were trying to watch so closely and almost missed it was crazy.

You also have to be very careful when multiple kids are in the pool. Sometimes a kid who is a great swimmer can drown when another kid starts panicking and climbs on top of them to stay afloat.

New comment by SpaceFarmer in "Are animals conscious? New research"

SpaceFarmer — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 19:08:43 +0000

I've always had trouble with people's definition of consciousness. What is amazing to me is that I've lived my whole life, from the perspective of this one seemingly random guy. I can't prove anyone or anything else is consciousness, but I know "I'm in here" so to speak. As amazing and complex as the configuration of atoms in the human brain is, it doesn't even begin to explain to me how "I" ended up perceiving reality from this one object in particular. Or even explain what "I" am.

New comment by SpaceFarmer in "Astronaut Thomas Stafford has died"

SpaceFarmer — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 14:44:11 +0000

When I was a sophomore in college and working an internship, I met a guy down the street who said he used to work for NASA. I was very interested in what he had done at NASA, and space in general. The next time I ran into him he gave me two photos, autographed to me by Thomas Stafford! One is him standing in front of the Saturn V, and the other is the picture of earth he took while flying around the moon. I was so blown away! They are hanging on my wall right now. Really meant a lot to me. The guy that gave me the photos and now Tom aren't alive anymore, but I'll treasure these photos and pass them to my kids.