<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><channel><title>Hacker News: gravelc</title><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gravelc</link><description>Hacker News RSS</description><docs>https://hnrss.org/</docs><generator>hnrss v2.1.1</generator><lastBuildDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:18:20 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://hnrss.org/user?id=gravelc" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"></atom:link><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Butterflies are in decline across North America, a look at the Western Monarch"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Pesticides form the backbone of crop protection.  Without them, we're looking at at least a 40% reduction in global yield, and much greater uncertainty in food supply chains (the oil shocks show how bad that can be). Pesticides per se are not the problem; synthetic broad-spectrum pesticides with many unintended effects are.  They're often toxic to people and ecosystems, and resistance among pests and pathogens is increasing anyway, so their days are numbered to a degree.  Biopesticides, which are generally safer and much more sustainable, offer a real solution to at least the safety issue.<p>I work on RNAi-based biopesticides (sprayed dsRNA) - non-GM, doesn't impact beneficial species, doesn't hang around in the environment, etc.  Already ubiquitous in nature (and part of our diet). Peptide-based biopesticides are another approach that is going well.  Both approaches are now commercialised by smaller players (e.g. for varroa mite control in bee hives by GreenLight), and not by the Bayer, Syngenta types.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 27 Apr 2026 02:21:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917047</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917047</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47917047</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "How Nissan and Honda's $60B merger talks collapsed"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Australia is 'winning' even more based on the graph:<p><a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/graphs?loc=36&type=Probabilistic%20Projections&category=Population&subcategory=Age%2025-69" rel="nofollow">https://population.un.org/wpp/graphs?loc=36&type=Probabilist...</a><p>Housing is very expensive, but inflation is largely tamed, unemployment is low, and the government is running surpluses - so things aren't terrible (despite what the Murdoch media say).  Birth rates are falling, but I'm not sure how much that really matters given immigration.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Feb 2025 23:21:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43030867</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43030867</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43030867</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "MIT Aluminum Bicycle Project 1974 (2016)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I had a Merida Magnesium 909 road bike back in the day.  They were common in Australia.  Was (wrongly) convinced magnesium was going to overtake carbon.  Never had any issues in 10 years of ownership and a lot of kms.  Welds looked shocking and it was very rigid and unforgiving though.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:49:22 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42262793</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42262793</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42262793</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Cancer Incidence by Country"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Surprised Australia isn't much higher given the incidence of melanoma.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 10 Aug 2024 10:24:17 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41208530</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41208530</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41208530</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Apple Vision Pro – Why Monitor Replacement Is Ridiculous"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Exactly what I was going to write. Why not at least demo the AVP before writing a whole article?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 08 Feb 2024 02:22:00 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39297072</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39297072</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39297072</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the International Space Station"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Some fungi require dead organic matter for survival - necrotrophs. Many dont (e.g. yeast)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 28 Jan 2024 21:01:50 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39169760</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39169760</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39169760</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Marine bacteria genus may hold mitochondria's closest relatives"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Sceptical of this.  Where did that number come from? What's the uncertainty? Yes, it's an extremely unlikely event, but unlikely events happen all the time.  There's just as good an argument that given the advantages conferred by the union, it's bound to be successful given enough iterations.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 30 Nov 2023 08:30:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38471148</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38471148</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38471148</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Why don’t Americans eat mutton?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>It's common enough in sheep grazing areas.<p>I grew up in Australia with mutton making up 90% of my meat intake, as we slaughtered our own merino wethers (so not the breeds of lamb raised for eating).<p>The local butchers would also have a decent stock of different cuts, particularly things like neck chops for stews. Numbers of sheep around are lower now, so that may have limited things a little.<p>I also think hogget is equally as or more common than lamb in city butchers.  Some of those chops are huge and have a nice tang.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 27 Sep 2023 06:38:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37670989</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37670989</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37670989</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "A new method to reprogram human cells to better mimic embryonic stem cells"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>As usual, the manuscript itself is a bit more discrete than the press release, but this sentence in the conclusion shows the potential benefits - scalable and practical resetting of somatic stem cells, which has been a barrier in translation to actual therapies:<p>- "Our work shows that TNT reprogramming is a practical and scalable approach to overcome these intrinsic characteristics of hiPS cells, which is important for the clinical delivery of this technology."</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 27 Aug 2023 22:10:53 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37287119</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37287119</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37287119</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Baldur's Gate 3"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Game of the Year for me if it holds up in the latter stages.  Playing it with my son on split screen.  Hopefully will give him some good memories.<p>It's deep, but not too complicated that the learning curve is too much if you're time poor.  Lots of hard choices to be made, which is always good in a decent RPG.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2023 10:59:35 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37020749</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37020749</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37020749</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Lionel Messi Is Impossible (2014)"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I'd be surprised if anyone in any large scale sport ever dominated like Bradman or will be as dominant in the future.  He missed part of the prime of his career due to WW2, so who knows what could have happened if he'd avoided the interruption.<p>He's probably not as well known as someone like Gretzky in North America, so his name wouldn't immediately spring to mind on forums like this.  In cricket, there  just isn't any debate about the greatest - the only area of interest is about who comes next (Viv Richards or Brian Lara in my opinion)</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 19 Dec 2022 03:33:54 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34048102</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34048102</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34048102</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Riffusion – Stable Diffusion fine-tuned to generate music"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>I love simple generative approaches to get ideas, and go from there.  This seems like an extension of that (well, it's what I'm going to try - sample the output, make stems, pull MIDI etc).  Will make the creative process more interesting for me, not less.<p>Having said that, it's not my job, and I can see where the issues lay there.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 15 Dec 2022 21:18:41 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34005903</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34005903</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34005903</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "MycelioTronics: Fungal mycelium skin for sustainable electronics"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Well that’s beer and bread off then menu.<p>Fungi are like plants. Some are beneficial. Some are not.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 26 Nov 2022 20:31:55 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33756388</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33756388</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33756388</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Introduction to Genomics for Engineers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>You can't present it as computer science concepts because it's not computer science.<p>For example, the central dogma of DNA transcribed to RNA translated to protein seems simple, but it's not.<p>In almost every instance, there are vague 'rules' and many many exceptions to these rules.  For example, often coding regions in genes start with an ATG, but sometimes they don't.  Sometimes splice sites (where the non-coding parts of transcripts called introns are chopped out) can be predicted, but a portion of the transcripts are not spliced at predicted sites for no obvious reason.  Sometimes the predictions are just wrong. Sometimes the generated proteins are modified at specific locations which impacts their function, but again, sometimes not.  Even whether the gene itself is 'switched on' (i.e. able to be transcribed) is impacted by many many things, such as unidentified transcription factors, or whether the chromosomal location itself is accessible or not.  There are many many other things that impact the process.<p>There is no simple underlying concept as the system is not designed, it evolved and is quite different among different organisms, and even in different tissues or timepoints in the same organism.  As long as it works and provides enough benefit to avoid negative selection, that's enough.<p>It's a mess, which makes it interesting.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2022 05:25:03 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33739516</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33739516</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33739516</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Introduction to Genomics for Engineers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>This is indeed a far better resource.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2022 01:40:43 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738205</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738205</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738205</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Introduction to Genomics for Engineers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Who knew complex large polyploid genome assembly (i.e. sugar cane) was just a matter of python scripting?</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2022 01:39:14 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738193</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738193</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738193</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Introduction to Genomics for Engineers"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Don't want to be too disparaging, but this to me doesn't seem to be an 'Introduction to Genomics', but more an introduction to read mapping and variant detection in human (or more broadly diploid) genomes.<p>Genomics stretches vastly beyond this - assembly and annotation to start with.<p>I'd argue the most interesting problem space for software engineers is outside of what is covered in the document.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2022 01:23:57 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738090</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738090</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738090</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Is wine fake?"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>My absolute favourite wine in the world is less than AU$30 a bottle - every vintage is spectacular.  The winemaker wants ordinary people to drink his wines, so this is the price he sets.  They are accordingly very difficult to buy - cellar door opens for just 2 weekends a year and supply is very limited.  I’d back virtually anyone who likes this style to genuinely enjoy it, without knowing anything about its provenance.<p>I’ve tasted wines 10x or 20x the price, and they really are no better.  They likely cost exactly the same to make, but their price is impacted by demand.<p>In general, I think most people can tell a $10 bottle from a $30 bottle.  I suspect very very few could reliably pick a $300 bottle from a $30 bottle.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:47:16 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33700359</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33700359</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33700359</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Myocarditis after Covid vaccination: Research on possible long-term risks begins"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Circumstances change - super super glad I got my booster.<p>When I got it, I was a healthy, fit person without any of the comorbidities that go along with COVID.<p>Last week I had a mountain biking accident and broke half my ribs and punctured a lung.  Then I got COVID in hospital.  Fortunately it was quite mild, and even that was a bit of a nightmare as coughing was hell and I had quite low blood oxygen.<p>Given the risks of a booster are so low (though non-zero) and the risk that your health can change before you manage to contract COVID, it seems like the smart proposition to me to get the booster.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 14 Nov 2022 21:31:19 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33601451</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33601451</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33601451</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[New comment by gravelc in "Tesla Vision Update: Replacing Ultrasonic Sensors with Tesla Vision"]]></title><description><![CDATA[
<p>Australia has no local car manufacturers and hasn't for some time.  Toyota is by far the biggest car seller , followed by Mazda and Hyundai.<p><a href="https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/vfacts-australias-2021-new-car-sales-detailed-in-full" rel="nofollow">https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/vfacts-australias-2021...</a><p>Tesla seem to have sold 12,094 locally last year, putting them at 18th on that list.<p><a href="https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/how-many-teslas-are-there-in-australia-86265" rel="nofollow">https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/how-many-teslas-are-t...</a><p>Australia with its long drives if you leave a city and lack of infrastructure doesn't suit electric cars at the moment.  Will change eventually, but likely lagging the rest of the world.</p>
]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2022 06:22:46 +0000</pubDate><link>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33091959</link><dc:creator>gravelc</dc:creator><comments>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33091959</comments><guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33091959</guid></item></channel></rss>