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Why do Bedouins wear black robes in hot deserts? (1980)

https://www.nature.com/articles/283373a0
10•thunderbong•23h ago

Comments

SapporoChris•21h ago
Leading off a scientific paper with a mythological quote doesn't instill confidence. "Survival in hot deserts has always posed a problem for man; Moses had to solve it in order to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness of the Sinai"

"The majority of scholars see the biblical Moses as a legendary figure, while retaining the possibility that Moses or a Moses-like figure existed in the 13th century BCE" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses

mathgeek•20h ago
Some relevant context here is that this paper was published in 1980 by the Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. I would expect such references to be pretty common in such works.
ghssds•12h ago
Religious bs comming from an university make it worse. Can't you see it?
mikhailfranco•18h ago
In my limited experience in Arabia, the women wear black, optimized for losing heat inside, and men wear white, optimized for reflecting direct light outside - at least that was my instinctive explanation.
schiffern•14h ago

  >black, optimized for losing heat inside
Black colored clothing does not lose heat faster inside.

You're probably thinking this because of "black body radiation"[0], but room-temperature objects glow in the far IR, not in visible light. So what actually matters for radiant heat loss is to be 'black' in the far IR part of the spectrum, which is true for most non-metals.

Additionally, I doubt that radiative heat loss is a major cooling mode in clothing, vs convection and evaporation. I expect wearing black was more about protection from UV skin damage.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body_radiation

ghssds•12h ago
I stopped reading at "Moses had to solve it in order to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness of the Sinai". I was here for reading scientific litterature, not religious mumbo jumbo.

Actual usage clips of words in US, British (with IPA), Aus (and more) accents

https://youglish.com/pronounce/schedule/english/uk
1•sundarurfriend•28s ago•0 comments

If I Ran Mastodon

https://werd.io/if-i-ran-mastodon/
1•furkansahin•28s ago•0 comments

Opportunities for Digital Health in 2025

https://www.ideo.com/journal/six-opportunities-for-digital-health-in-2025
1•baranguneysel•2m ago•0 comments

Barbie-maker Mattel partners with OpenAI to make AI child's play

https://www.ft.com/content/7a9d0c47-5294-46b7-9d06-181654129d43
1•austinallegro•9m ago•1 comments

Claude Code: Settings

https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/settings
1•tosh•11m ago•0 comments

Google to reduce Pixel 6A charging performance after fire reports

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-to-nerf-Pixel-6a-battery-performance-after-reports-of-phones-catching-fire.1035241.0.html
1•abawany•14m ago•0 comments

Chinese AI Companies Dodge USA Chip Curbs with Flying Suitcases of Hard Drives

https://www.wsj.com/tech/china-ai-chip-curb-suitcases-7c47dab1
1•Ozarkian•21m ago•0 comments

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https://fortune.com/2025/06/12/tesla-sues-ex-optimus-engineer-robot-trade-secrets/
2•01-_-•24m ago•0 comments

Thousands of Koreans were banned from Instagram this week. I was one of them

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-06-11/business/tech/Thousands-of-Koreans-got-banned-from-Instagram-this-week-I-was-one-of-them/2327850
2•01-_-•26m ago•0 comments

Xian: A Native Python Blockchain

https://xian.org/
2•crosschainer•29m ago•0 comments

Bad at math and great at physics, explain this paradox? /

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/bad-at-math-and-great-at-physics-explain-this-paradox.1062225/
1•squircle•29m ago•0 comments

Denmark gets more serious about digital sovereignty

https://world.hey.com/dhh/denmark-gets-more-serious-about-digital-sovereignty-7736f756
3•jamesblonde•31m ago•3 comments

Apple Intelligence Shifts Gears

https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/06/apple-intelligence-shifts-gears/
1•tambourine_man•33m ago•0 comments

Traceable random numbers from a non-local quantum advantage

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09054-3
1•taubek•34m ago•1 comments

Deleted my entire site like an idiot

https://old.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/1la3x5n/deleted_my_entire_site_like_an_idiot/
6•carouselhero•35m ago•1 comments

Israel attacks Iran's top military officials and nuclear sites

https://apnews.com/live/israel-iran-attack
4•turntable_pride•37m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Any PDF Benchmarks?

1•nnurmanov•39m ago•1 comments

Thermal Runaway: Why Waymo Cars Burned So Completely in the Los Angeles Protests

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-waymo-car-fires-in-recent-los-angeles-protests-caused-the-robotaxis/
4•Stratoscope•41m ago•0 comments

GoTo: The Forgotten Search Engine (2018)

https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/goto-forgotten-search-engine/
1•gscott•41m ago•0 comments

I built an app so you don't have to waste hours learning any topic

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1•prvn_•43m ago•1 comments

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https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviation-explainer-series/seat-11a/
2•TowerTall•44m ago•3 comments

Social media is a threat to my psychological sovereignty

https://ankursethi.com/blog/social-media-is-a-threat-to-my-psychological-sovereignty/
1•harryday•49m ago•0 comments

Claudi language makes Claude faster

https://gist.github.com/farant/798f20065cbdffb68c09310858127222
1•waterbadger•51m ago•1 comments

AI Evaluation Methods by Use Case

https://www.notion.so/hexacc/AI-Evaluation-Methods-by-Use-Case-2041cc0bd5bc80558ba6fd032f297891?source=copy_link
1•fdefitte•51m ago•1 comments

NASA reveals monster star clumps in galactic wreckage

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250612081336.htm
2•MukundMohanK•59m ago•1 comments

The Limits of Believability in Science Fiction

https://classicsofsciencefiction.com/2019/04/19/the-limits-of-believability-in-science-fiction/
1•squircle•59m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: Develop more intentional computer usage via physical unlocking device?

1•uvNozAWQCUchtX•59m ago•1 comments

Symbolic AI or Gofai: The Old Approach to Artificial Intelligence

https://medium.com/@harrpreet/symbolic-ai-or-gofai-the-old-approach-to-artificial-intelligence-4c836dd2157d
2•squircle•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: ExtinctAtlas – Explore extinct species

https://github.com/0xSKAMI/extinctatlas
1•0xSKAMI•1h ago•0 comments

Why Denmark Is Dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-denmark-is-dumping-microsoft-office-and-windows-for-libreoffice-and-linux/
4•dotcoma•1h ago•1 comments