SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Temperatures are set based on formulas that aimed to optimize employees' thermal comfort, a neutral condition of the body when it doesn't have to shiver to produce heat because it's too cold or sweat because it's too hot. It's based on four environmental factors: air temperature, radiant temperature, air velocity and humidity. And two personal factors: clothing and metabolic rate, the amount of energy required by the body to function.
The problem, according to a study in Nature Climate Change on Monday, is that metabolic rates can vary widely across humans based on a number of factors -- size, weight, age, fitness level and the type of work being done -- and today's standards are based on the assumption that every worker is, you guessed it, a man.
Or if you want to be really specific, a 40-year-old, 154-pound man.
...
Kingma and van Marken Lictenbelt's work builds on research out of Japan which found that the neutral temperature for Japanese women was 77.36 degrees (Fahrenheit) while it was 71.78 for European and North American males.
5.58 degrees is a significant difference. Is it better for half the people in the office to be sweaty than half the people in the office to be chilly?
(Score: 5, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 05 2015, @01:42PM
I didn't get it from Slashdot. I have only visited Slashdot twice in the last year, once because people on SN were talking about the users were slamming Dice for something I forget now. This article I got from the Washington Post via Trove, Rob Malda's (aka CmdrTaco) new venture.
First, I'm a humble user, like you, not an editor. I submit a lot because I care about the community and want to help the editors avoid burnout, because without them and our handful of intrepid developers the whole tent folds up. That said, I do try to submit mostly "pure" tech articles with something like this one in question thrown in now and then. But let's take a quick survey of how interesting the Soylent community finds those, based on the number of comments (I grabbed these from the last 3 days):
"Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND"
1 comment
"NASA's Ceres Maps Show Color-Coded Features and New Official, Mythical Names"
3 comments
"Prostheses With Lego Adapters: Digging Instead of Gripping"
1 comment
"Physicists Announce Graphene's Latest Cousin: Stanene"
3 comments
"Pluto Findings Recap"
5 comments
How many did, "Sex With Robots to Be 'the Norm' in 50 Years, Expert Claims" get? 62 comments. That different level of response doesn't surprise me, based on the patterns I've observed over the last 6 months. But I was surprised the story about LEGO prostheses didn't get more discussion, because it's really cool and raises a lot of interesting questions about body image and human-ness as we incorporate more technology into our bodies. But, nope, apparently only one other user in the entire SN community found that as interesting as I did.
You can, however, put more science articles like you're looking for on the front page by submitting them. The Soylent system limits you to 12 submissions per day (or close enough), so I can only do so much.
It sounds like you're talking about the distinction between basic research and applied research. The trouble with limiting our article queue to basic research articles only is that it's very incremental most of the time, and because of the hyper specialization in all branches of the sciences it's rare that you'll find one biochemist, say, ready to post authoritatively on another biochemist's work because he/she has a different focus. As such, as much as we'd like to tell ourselves that's all Soylentils care to read and talk about, it's not very good grist for the mill.
I'd also say that applied research, the sort you're panning as frivolous, is more accessible to the non-specialist. "Thermal comfort" in an office? Well, most of us work in offices and might have something to say about where the thermostat's set. And if the level a thermostat is set at does have clear effects on energy consumption, which is well-known in fact, then adjusting the average temperature of the office thermostat could well have non-frivolous consequences. The point is in such "applied research" articles there is often a more serious purpose behind it than can be discerned by the attention-grabbing headlines journalists employ.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @01:50PM
"Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND"
256GB, is that all they could get using 48 layers? Maybe they should hire better engineers, they should get at least 320 GB!
Some stories are tougher to troll than others.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:16PM
Hey, that is quite an interesting angle.
In case you don't see any line of comments approaching what you've seen interesting, may I kindly ask you to "seed" a comment on that line? Specifically to that article, all my lone neuron managed to fire was: "How's this different from allowing the kid to use nail-polish on her/his prosthetic?" - really, I can be stupid sometimes (perhaps most of it?), any kick in the back would be appreciated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:34PM
OK, I will. I typically incorporate that into my quip after the quote, because articles that start out with low # of comments tend to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A handful of people have taken umbrage at my quips, but I can see that consistently when I don't quip conversation is not generated. Assuming more conversation is better, that is.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 05 2015, @02:37PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday August 05 2015, @05:52PM
Keep the quip.
(Score: 2) by fleg on Thursday August 06 2015, @04:43AM
+1 for quipping.
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Thursday August 20 2015, @02:09AM
I thought the LEGO story was cool and pointed it out to several patrons, but never got a chance to comment--on busy days, I might get to read the headlines on the front page before my first interruption, and I don't like to comment after the first day, as no one will see it.
The only reason I'm able to comment now is that there is a public County meeting being held at my one-room library, and I need to be here when they leave so I can set up for opening tomorrow morning. If they weren't here I'd have been cataloging books, and would not have seen it 'til tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:05PM
Number of comments is a pretty terrible metric really.
I read all of those submissions you listed, just didn't really have anything to say about them. They don't feature opinions.
"Sex With Robots to Be 'the Norm' in 50 Years, Expert Claims" is entirely opinion based, so it's easy to comment on/disagree with/bitch about.
I honestly think it might be nice, besides "n comments", to also have a "n views".
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:14PM
Is it, though? Anyone who wants straight science news can use RSS or some similar service. Slashdot, and Soylent, have always been about the conversation. I know I have relied on it heavily over the years in forming opinions about tech issues that I don't have personal experience or expertise in. So, if there's not a lot of commentary on a given article, obviously there's not much chance to learn from people who know a lot more about a given issue than I do.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by fleg on Thursday August 06 2015, @04:46AM
>Is it, though?
yeah it is :)
i read them too. just didnt have anything to say, which is why its good to
throw in an article like this one every now and again, gives everyone a chance
to sound off.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:06PM
But let's take a quick survey of how interesting the Soylent community finds those, based on the number of comments (I grabbed these from the last 3 days)
One thing I'll note is that there is a correlation (and causation) between interest in an article and comments, but they are not 1-to-1. Imagine the three following (entirely invented) articles:
1) AMD announces new CPU to be shipped in Feburary 2016.
2) First commercially-viable fusion power plant created.
3) 10 predictions from futurists of life in 2030.
The first is interesting news, but probably not generate too many comments. People are interested it happened and it's good to know, but there isn't too much to say or discuss about it. (That was my reaction to the "Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND" and the "NASA's Ceres Maps Show Color-Coded Features and New Official, Mythical Names" articles.)
The second is interesting news, and generate several comments due to the groundbreaking nature of it and how it "changes everything." (I think the successful trip to Pluto would fall in this category.)
The third is (in my opinion) not interesting news, but would generate several comments due to the controversial nature of it. It would be like saying "the US is the sole source of freedom in the world, and you can't prove anything else." It's challenging people to say "no, you're wrong." (This is like the "Sex With Robots to Be 'the Norm' in 50 Years, Expert Claims" article.)
Don't mistake lack of comments with non-interest. The fact click-bait is a thing (and even has a known term) should prove that. I would go so far as to say that this was one of the multiple things which contributed to the path Slashdot took and continues to take.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:24PM
Owned by Dice, Slashdot is interested in page views for advertising revenue purposes. SN has no such encumbrances. So accusations of click-bait here are empty. Nobody's trying to make a fast buck.
Once in a while, it's fun to have a rousing debate, as nerds, about stupid shit. Shit we all know is goofy and shallow. But as usual as nerds we think about such things on an entirely different level than your average WalMart drone.
But I come here to learn about spheres of knowledge about which I know little. For example, if it weren't for HairyFeet my knowledge of developments with MicroSoft, from an MS perspective, would be greatly reduced. (So I will do what I can to make sure he's not chased from this forum.)
But none of that comes through if there's little discussion. Here, discussion's the thing. Pageviews are only great if you're trying to sell advertising.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday August 05 2015, @09:48PM
But I come here to learn about spheres of knowledge about which I know little. For example, if it weren't for HairyFeet my knowledge of developments with MicroSoft, from an MS perspective, would be greatly reduced.
Just to let you know, it hasn't been increased very much, either. And how did you know that Hairyfeet is a sphere?
**All Hail the Warriors of the Social Justice League! May they prevail over the Anti-social Injustice Warriors!**
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday August 06 2015, @11:18PM
Hell, I occasionally learned something useful from Slashdot's most revered troll, commonly known as Twitter. So I'm with ya on not chasing off anyone if we can avoid it.
I thought this was interesting enough to spend a few minutes on, so what's the harm? If I don't like it, I don't have to open the link to start with. Do some people have a linear brain that can't skip the "boring" stuff??
And I just don't take this sort of story, or the comments, so seriously that it ruins my day. (Tho it did spend all my mod points...) File under trivial controversy, shake my head at some of the pointless arguments, and promptly forget the whole thing.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @03:28PM
But I was surprised the story about LEGO prostheses didn't get more discussion, because it's really cool and raises a lot of interesting questions about body image and human-ness as we incorporate more technology into our bodies. But, nope, apparently only one other user in the entire SN community found that as interesting as I did.
I found it interesting. But I didn't have much to comment on. As for body image and humanness - we use tools and after a while they can almost become an extension of our bodies. A pro tennis player hitting a ball no longer thinks "my arm needs to move this way so the thing I'm holding will hit the ball".
There are plenty of Soylentnews stories that are interesting that I shared with others (outside of Soylentnews) but didn't comment on.
Just because everyone and his dog can comment on a bikeshed story doesn't mean the bikeshed story is always better than some other story with only a few comments. Of course there were some other stories with few comments that I found uninteresting too. Soylentnews could have a vote up or down for a story if they want better metrics.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2015, @04:32PM
Wait, Trove, that site whose content doesn't even display without JavaScript, is from the very same person who also created Slashdot?
Seems that not only Slashdot has gone downhill.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @12:48AM
So, this story has a lot more comments than even your sex with robots nonsense.
Does that mean the posting of this story is BETTER for the community?
Do you believe the content of the comments is irrelevant? More comments == better?
Even when the majority of the comments are either people saying the story is garbage or you defending your submission?
Well hey, "for the good of the community" you could create some sock puppets to submit all the click/flame-bait stories you like to "get the community talking" because more comments ALWAYS == better, right? Right?
(Score: 2) by fleg on Thursday August 06 2015, @04:39AM
>The Soylent system limits you to 12 submissions per day (or close enough), so I can only do so much.
can we get the limit for Phoenix666 removed? increased? he (or she!) submits good
stuff.
(Score: 1) by synaesthesin on Thursday August 06 2015, @04:35PM
Topics to do with sex will *always* generate more interest and comments. Try the same comparison on an average population, not the nerds here. You'd probably get zero comments on the tech topics instead of 3 or 5.