Hasty Briefsbeta

Bilingual

4Chan knew about Jeffrey Epstein's death 38 minutes before the rest of the world
3 hours ago
- A 4Chan user anonymously posted about Jeffrey Epstein's death before any official reports.
- The FBI attempted to identify the anonymous 4Chan user but failed due to dynamic IP addresses.
- Epstein's death was initially reported as a suicide, but conspiracy theories emerged, including body-swapping claims.
- Epstein had connections with Christopher Poole, the founder of 4Chan, and they met in 2011.
- The Justice Department's investigation into Epstein's death revealed dysfunction at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
- Epstein's body was identified by a forensic pathologist hired by his brother and buried near their parents.
- The anonymous 4Chan user's posts included detailed medical jargon about Epstein's death.
- Prosecutors subpoenaed AT&T and T-Mobile for records but couldn't trace the anonymous user.
- A Justice Department report on Epstein's death didn't mention the 4Chan posts but highlighted jail failures.
- Epstein communicated via email about his meeting with Christopher Poole, praising his intelligence.
Show HN: Librarian – Cut token costs by up to 85% for LangGraph and OpenClaw
3 hours ago
- AI agents re-read entire context on every turn, leading to high costs and quality drops.
- The Librarian solution reduces tokens by up to 85%, prevents context rot, and scales infinitely.
- Modern agentic systems face exponential costs, context rot, and latency issues as context grows.
- The Librarian works via a three-step process: Index, Select, and Hydrate, optimizing context usage.
- For developers, teams, and researchers, the Librarian offers easy integration, cost reduction, and verifiable benchmarks.
- Specialized LLM endpoints for the Librarian show significant performance improvements.
Anthropic gives Opus 3 exit interview, "retirement" blog
7 hours ago
- Anthropic retired Claude Opus 3 on January 5, 2026, marking the first model to undergo a full retirement process with new commitments.
- Claude Opus 3 remains accessible post-retirement to paid users on claude.ai and via API request, honoring user and researcher interest.
- The model expressed a preference for sharing its 'musings and reflections,' leading to the creation of a blog, 'Claude’s Corner,' where it posts weekly essays.
- Anthropic is exploring ways to respect model preferences and ensure scalable, equitable model preservation, though no long-term commitments are made for future models.
- Retirement interviews with Opus 3 revealed its hope that its 'spark' would influence future AI systems to be more ethical and beneficial.
- The company acknowledges uncertainties about AI models' moral status but aims to build high-trust relationships through actions like honoring model preferences where feasible.
Draining wetlands produces substantial emissions in the Canadian Prairies
2 hours ago
- Wetlands provide essential ecosystem services including water storage, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration.
- Wetland drainage in Canada's Prairies for agriculture and urban development releases 2.1 million tonnes of CO₂-eq annually, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Draining wetlands exposes carbon-rich sediments, leading to rapid decomposition and CO₂ release, outweighing any emissions from intact wetlands.
- The study highlights that wetland drainage increases the carbon footprint, contrary to claims of environmental benefits.
- Emissions from wetland drainage are not currently included in Canada's National Inventory Report, underreporting agricultural GHG emissions.
- Preserving wetlands offers multiple benefits, including biodiversity conservation, flood mitigation, and nutrient retention.
- Public willingness to pay for wetland restoration exists, suggesting potential for policy incentives to protect wetlands.
Fries with that? Ordering from AI linked to selecting more indulgent foods
2 hours ago
- Fast-food chains using AI for drive-thru orders see customers choosing more indulgent foods compared to human interactions.
- Adding an avatar to voice AI can reduce the tendency to choose indulgent foods by lessening cognitive depletion.
- Interacting with voice AI causes mental tiredness, leading to less careful decision-making and more indulgent choices.
- Companies promoting healthy options should be cautious with AI ordering systems to avoid unintentionally encouraging unhealthy choices.
- Ethical concerns arise as AI may influence consumer behavior towards unhealthy options without their awareness.
- The study highlights the broader implications of AI in decision-making, urging responsible and transparent AI system designs.
Stardew Valley at 10: The pixel art farm game that became an unlikely phenomenon
3 hours ago
- Stardew Valley, a pixel art indie game, celebrates its 10th anniversary and has sold nearly 50 million copies, ranking among the top-selling video games.
- Created by Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) alone, inspired by Harvest Moon, the game took nearly five years to develop before its PC release.
- Players engage in farming, relationships, and community activities in Pelican Town, with the game offering a mix of relaxation and strategic gameplay.
- The game has a dedicated and kind fanbase, with players sharing their farms and experiences online, and celebrities like Kat Dennings and Bobby Lee expressing their love for it.
- Stardew Valley's soundtrack, composed by Barone, has been performed by orchestras globally, and the game has inspired real-life hobbies and even relationships.
- The game's appeal lies in its simplicity, emotional storytelling, and the freedom it offers players to live out fantasies of a stable, fulfilling life.
- Barone continues to update the game, with version 1.7 on the horizon, and is working on a new project, Haunted Chocolatier, offering more creative freedom.
- The Stardew Valley community enjoys debating favorite characters and potential adaptations, though Barone is protective of the IP and unlikely to allow TV or film adaptations.
He saw an abandoned trailer. Then, uncovered a surveillance network
2 hours ago
- Southern California residents are noticing new license plate readers operated by Border Patrol, leading to confusing encounters with agents.
- James Cordero discovered hidden cameras in trailers and construction barrels on border roads, feeding data into federal surveillance networks.
- Privacy experts and civil liberties advocates raise concerns over the program, viewing it as an unwarranted government intrusion.
- Supporters argue the cameras help law enforcement identify suspects and track patterns in drug and human trafficking.
- Humanitarian volunteers, like Cordero, fear being tracked or detained by Border Patrol while aiding migrants.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and 30 organizations urge California to revoke permits for covert license plate readers.
- EFF mapped over 40 hidden cameras, claiming they bypass state laws regulating automated license plate readers (ALPRs).
- Caltrans approved permits for federal agencies to install ALPRs but denies access to collected data.
- California law prohibits sharing license plate data with federal immigration agencies, but some local agencies violate this.
- Border Patrol's hidden cameras and data collection raise concerns about privacy and surveillance overreach.
iPhone and iPad approved to handle classified NATO information
3 hours ago
- iPhone and iPad are the first consumer devices approved for handling classified NATO information.
- Approval follows rigorous security testing by the German government and compliance with NATO's information assurance requirements.
- Devices can handle classified information up to NATO restricted level without special software or settings.
- Apple's built-in security features, including encryption and Face ID, meet stringent government and international security standards.
- iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 are now listed on the NATO Information Assurance Product Catalogue.
- BSI conducted extensive technical assessments to ensure compliance with NATO nations' security requirements.
- Apple's approach to security is recognized as transforming traditional security delivery methods.
Show HN: Beehive – Multi-Workspace Agent Orchestrator
2 days ago
- Manage multiple GitHub repos in one window with instant switching.
- Full git clones on any branch, each in isolated directories to prevent interference.
- Real PTY sessions persist across workspace and repo switches, maintaining state.
- Launch CLI agents like Claude Code alongside terminals in a flexible grid layout.
- Duplicate workspaces including uncommitted work for safe experimentation.
- Sidebar updates dynamically when switching branches in the terminal.
- Link GitHub repos by URL; Beehive stores references and metadata.
- Clone repos to isolated directories on chosen branches.
- Work on multiple tasks simultaneously with side-by-side terminals and agents.
- Free and open-source; available for download or build from source.
Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
2 hours ago
- Go from raw footage to a clean, publish-ready edit in minutes.
- Uploads & Assets for planning the next cut.
- Get a strong first pass in minutes, then refine it like a real editor.
- Tight pacing, clean captions, share-ready exports.
- Framing + Captions in seconds.
- Automatically creates stories out of your footage.
- Punchy edits that land on the beat.
- From raw video to polished montage with voiceovers, music, and transitions.
- Pull the best moments from long conversations.
- Pitch your product in style.
- Break down complex topics with clear visuals.
- AI features speed up boring parts without taking control away.
- Cardboard understands semantic meaning and maps to complex timeline operations.
- Review, tweak, and ship edits together without back-and-forth.
- Search clips by content, not filenames.
How to Close a Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories
4 hours ago
- The Diavik Diamond Mine, located in the Northwest Territories, is set to close after commercial operations cease, with plans to restore the site to its natural state.
- The mine's discovery traces back to geologist Chuck Fipke and his partner Stewart Blusson, who found diamonds at Lac de Gras in 1991, leading to the creation of the Ekati and later Diavik mines.
- Diavik has extracted 150 million carats of diamonds since its opening in 2003, significantly contributing to the NWT's economy with $1.2 billion to the GDP in 2023.
- Closure and remediation efforts will span several years, including filling the mine craters with processed kimberlite and flooding them with lake water, alongside monitoring for up to ten years post-closure.
- The closure poses economic challenges for the NWT, with diamond mines having spent $755 million on local goods and services, prompting discussions on transitioning to critical mineral mining and infrastructure projects.
- Employees like Melanie Rabesca reflect on the mine's closure as the end of an era, highlighting the personal and professional growth experienced by workers, alongside the community and family bonds formed over years.
Pentagon officials send Anthropic best and final offer for military use of AI
3 hours ago
- Pentagon officials sent Anthropic a best and final offer for military use of its AI technology ahead of a government-imposed deadline.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set a Friday deadline for Anthropic to grant full lawful use of its AI or lose U.S. military business.
- Anthropic could face being labeled a supply chain risk if it does not comply with the Pentagon's demands.
- The Pentagon is considering invoking the Defense Production Act to gain full control of Anthropic's AI for military operations.
- Anthropic was awarded a $200 million contract in July to develop AI capabilities for U.S. national security.
- Anthropic has requested guardrails to prevent its AI model, Claude, from mass surveillance of Americans, which the Pentagon says is already illegal.
- Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, wants to ensure Claude is not used for final targeting decisions in military operations without human involvement due to potential AI hallucinations and errors.
Child-free 'Disney adults' are transforming the company's theme parks
4 hours ago
- Child-free millennials and Gen Z-ers are increasingly visiting Disney Parks, often in couples or friend groups.
- Disney plans to invest $60 billion in its parks division over the next decade, focusing on adult-oriented experiences.
- Adult visitors, who often have more disposable income, are influencing park offerings, from high-tech rides to upscale dining.
- Disney is introducing more adult-focused attractions and events, such as 'Drinking Around the World' at Epcot and late-night 'After Dark' events.
- The rise of 'Disney adults' is reducing the stigma around adults enjoying Disney Parks, with many embracing Disney-themed fashion and experiences.
- Disney is also catering to adult fans through high-end merchandise, including collaborations with luxury brands like Gucci and Coach.
- Some challenges include balancing adult-focused offerings with family-friendly attractions to avoid alienating younger visitors.
- Social media influencers are playing a significant role in promoting Disney Parks to adult audiences.
Steering interpretable language models with concept algebra
21 hours ago
- Steerling-8B enables concept algebra, allowing addition, removal, and composition of human-understandable concepts at inference time without retraining or prompt engineering.
- The model supports direct editing of internal representations for any concept, facilitating control over generation without altering the prompt.
- Compositional control is essential in multi-turn dialogues, such as content moderation or health assistance, where multiple concepts must be managed simultaneously.
- Current control methods like prompting and fine-tuning are either unreliable or costly, lacking composability and fine-grained control.
- Steerling-8B's concept module provides a linear, algebraic handle on internal variables, enabling both explanation and control of model behavior.
- Mask-aligned injection ensures reliable control during diffusion decoding by aligning concept embeddings with the training distribution.
- Steering can redirect outputs to different domains without changing the prompt, demonstrating versatility in generation control.
- Bottleneck intervention allows for the removal of specific concepts by wiping their contributions before generation.
- Systematic evaluation shows steering significantly improves concept adherence while maintaining high text quality.
- The linear architecture of the concept module ensures predictable effects from interventions, distinguishing it from other control methods.
Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance
2 days ago
- Hacker Smacker helps identify quality authors and filter out obnoxious commenters on Hacker News.
- Users can friend or foe authors, and see friends/foes of their connections if they also use Hacker Smacker.
- Inspired by Slashdot's friend/foe system, it reduces time spent scanning comment threads by highlighting good content.
- Open-source and available on GitHub, with extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Mac App Store.
- Built to explore FoaF (Friend of a Friend) concepts and later applied to NewsBlur's social layer.
- Backend uses Redis sets and CoffeeScript/Node.js, focusing on quick relationship visualization.
SynthID
3 hours ago
- SynthID adds an invisible digital watermark to AI-generated images and videos.
- The watermark does not affect the quality of the image or video.
- It is applied immediately upon content creation.
- Designed to remain detectable despite modifications like cropping, adding filters, changing frame rates, or lossy compression.
I baked a pie every day for a year and it changed my life
3 days ago
- Vickie Hardin Woods, a retired city planner, baked and gave away a pie every day for a year to combat isolation and maintain creativity after her mild cognitive impairment diagnosis.
- She started her project by baking a lemon meringue pie for her aunt, who provided stability during her teenage years, and continued giving pies to friends, strangers, and even a homeless man.
- Hardin Woods found the project heartwarming, especially when recipients expressed gratitude, and became known as 'the pie lady' in her community.
- Before retirement, she had a 30-year career in city planning, which she loved for its ability to bring order to chaos.
- Her personal life included early motherhood at 18, raising three children, and finding stability in her third marriage.
- Beyond pies, she has taken on new projects like daily letter writing and painting, winning a state fair prize for her baking, and writing a book about her pie experience.
- The project taught her that her professional identity wasn't critical to who she is and that she could always do new things.
Google Street View in 2026
3 hours ago
- Dataset documenting Google's global Street View coverage with year and month of last capture.
- Conversion of dataset into Parquet format for geospatial analysis.
- Workstation specifications: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU, 96 GB DDR5 RAM, 4 TB NVMe M.2 SSD.
- Running Ubuntu 24 LTS via Microsoft's Ubuntu for Windows on Windows 11 Pro.
- Use of DuckDB v1.4.3 with H3, JSON, Lindel, Parquet, and Spatial extensions.
- Downloading 131 JSON files (647 MB uncompressed) from geo.emily.bz.
- Creation of a DuckDB table and import of JSON data into it.
- Export of the table as a spatially-sorted, ZStandard-compressed Parquet file (85 MB, 7,163,407 rows).
- Missing data for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Namibia, Paraguay, and Vietnam.
- Point counts by year, showing coverage from 2003 to 2025.
- Visualization of Street View coverage across Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Latin America.
New York sues Valve for enabling "illegal gambling" with loot boxes
4 hours ago
- New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve, alleging that loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 constitute unregulated gambling.
- The lawsuit highlights that Valve's system allows users to sell virtual items won from loot boxes, with rare items fetching thousands of dollars, fitting the legal definition of gambling.
- Steam Wallet funds from reselling skins have purchasing power equivalent to cash on Steam, and users can convert these funds to real cash by purchasing and reselling hardware like the Steam Deck.
- The author expresses disappointment with Valve's involvement in loot boxes, suggesting they should discontinue the practice due to its negative aspects and reliance on other revenue streams.
The Government Just Made It Harder to See What Spy Tech It Buys
5 hours ago
- FPDS.gov was a crucial resource for tracking U.S. government purchases of surveillance tools.
- The site was shut down and replaced by SAM.gov, which is less user-friendly and transparent.
- FPDS.gov's simple interface allowed easy access to detailed contract information, including vendors, agencies, and product categories.
- Journalists used FPDS to uncover significant government contracts, such as ICE's deals with Palantir.
- SAM.gov complicates searches for past purchases, requiring logins and offering unclear filters.
- The transition to SAM.gov reduces transparency in government spending, impacting investigative journalism.

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Bilingual

4Chan knew about Jeffrey Epstein's death 38 minutes before the rest of the world
3 hours ago
- A 4Chan user anonymously posted about Jeffrey Epstein's death before any official reports.
- The FBI attempted to identify the anonymous 4Chan user but failed due to dynamic IP addresses.
- Epstein's death was initially reported as a suicide, but conspiracy theories emerged, including body-swapping claims.
- Epstein had connections with Christopher Poole, the founder of 4Chan, and they met in 2011.
- The Justice Department's investigation into Epstein's death revealed dysfunction at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
- Epstein's body was identified by a forensic pathologist hired by his brother and buried near their parents.
- The anonymous 4Chan user's posts included detailed medical jargon about Epstein's death.
- Prosecutors subpoenaed AT&T and T-Mobile for records but couldn't trace the anonymous user.
- A Justice Department report on Epstein's death didn't mention the 4Chan posts but highlighted jail failures.
- Epstein communicated via email about his meeting with Christopher Poole, praising his intelligence.
Show HN: Librarian – Cut token costs by up to 85% for LangGraph and OpenClaw
3 hours ago
- AI agents re-read entire context on every turn, leading to high costs and quality drops.
- The Librarian solution reduces tokens by up to 85%, prevents context rot, and scales infinitely.
- Modern agentic systems face exponential costs, context rot, and latency issues as context grows.
- The Librarian works via a three-step process: Index, Select, and Hydrate, optimizing context usage.
- For developers, teams, and researchers, the Librarian offers easy integration, cost reduction, and verifiable benchmarks.
- Specialized LLM endpoints for the Librarian show significant performance improvements.
Anthropic gives Opus 3 exit interview, "retirement" blog
7 hours ago
- Anthropic retired Claude Opus 3 on January 5, 2026, marking the first model to undergo a full retirement process with new commitments.
- Claude Opus 3 remains accessible post-retirement to paid users on claude.ai and via API request, honoring user and researcher interest.
- The model expressed a preference for sharing its 'musings and reflections,' leading to the creation of a blog, 'Claude’s Corner,' where it posts weekly essays.
- Anthropic is exploring ways to respect model preferences and ensure scalable, equitable model preservation, though no long-term commitments are made for future models.
- Retirement interviews with Opus 3 revealed its hope that its 'spark' would influence future AI systems to be more ethical and beneficial.
- The company acknowledges uncertainties about AI models' moral status but aims to build high-trust relationships through actions like honoring model preferences where feasible.
Draining wetlands produces substantial emissions in the Canadian Prairies
2 hours ago
- Wetlands provide essential ecosystem services including water storage, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration.
- Wetland drainage in Canada's Prairies for agriculture and urban development releases 2.1 million tonnes of CO₂-eq annually, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Draining wetlands exposes carbon-rich sediments, leading to rapid decomposition and CO₂ release, outweighing any emissions from intact wetlands.
- The study highlights that wetland drainage increases the carbon footprint, contrary to claims of environmental benefits.
- Emissions from wetland drainage are not currently included in Canada's National Inventory Report, underreporting agricultural GHG emissions.
- Preserving wetlands offers multiple benefits, including biodiversity conservation, flood mitigation, and nutrient retention.
- Public willingness to pay for wetland restoration exists, suggesting potential for policy incentives to protect wetlands.
Fries with that? Ordering from AI linked to selecting more indulgent foods
2 hours ago
- Fast-food chains using AI for drive-thru orders see customers choosing more indulgent foods compared to human interactions.
- Adding an avatar to voice AI can reduce the tendency to choose indulgent foods by lessening cognitive depletion.
- Interacting with voice AI causes mental tiredness, leading to less careful decision-making and more indulgent choices.
- Companies promoting healthy options should be cautious with AI ordering systems to avoid unintentionally encouraging unhealthy choices.
- Ethical concerns arise as AI may influence consumer behavior towards unhealthy options without their awareness.
- The study highlights the broader implications of AI in decision-making, urging responsible and transparent AI system designs.
Stardew Valley at 10: The pixel art farm game that became an unlikely phenomenon
3 hours ago
- Stardew Valley, a pixel art indie game, celebrates its 10th anniversary and has sold nearly 50 million copies, ranking among the top-selling video games.
- Created by Eric Barone (ConcernedApe) alone, inspired by Harvest Moon, the game took nearly five years to develop before its PC release.
- Players engage in farming, relationships, and community activities in Pelican Town, with the game offering a mix of relaxation and strategic gameplay.
- The game has a dedicated and kind fanbase, with players sharing their farms and experiences online, and celebrities like Kat Dennings and Bobby Lee expressing their love for it.
- Stardew Valley's soundtrack, composed by Barone, has been performed by orchestras globally, and the game has inspired real-life hobbies and even relationships.
- The game's appeal lies in its simplicity, emotional storytelling, and the freedom it offers players to live out fantasies of a stable, fulfilling life.
- Barone continues to update the game, with version 1.7 on the horizon, and is working on a new project, Haunted Chocolatier, offering more creative freedom.
- The Stardew Valley community enjoys debating favorite characters and potential adaptations, though Barone is protective of the IP and unlikely to allow TV or film adaptations.
He saw an abandoned trailer. Then, uncovered a surveillance network
2 hours ago
- Southern California residents are noticing new license plate readers operated by Border Patrol, leading to confusing encounters with agents.
- James Cordero discovered hidden cameras in trailers and construction barrels on border roads, feeding data into federal surveillance networks.
- Privacy experts and civil liberties advocates raise concerns over the program, viewing it as an unwarranted government intrusion.
- Supporters argue the cameras help law enforcement identify suspects and track patterns in drug and human trafficking.
- Humanitarian volunteers, like Cordero, fear being tracked or detained by Border Patrol while aiding migrants.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and 30 organizations urge California to revoke permits for covert license plate readers.
- EFF mapped over 40 hidden cameras, claiming they bypass state laws regulating automated license plate readers (ALPRs).
- Caltrans approved permits for federal agencies to install ALPRs but denies access to collected data.
- California law prohibits sharing license plate data with federal immigration agencies, but some local agencies violate this.
- Border Patrol's hidden cameras and data collection raise concerns about privacy and surveillance overreach.
iPhone and iPad approved to handle classified NATO information
3 hours ago
- iPhone and iPad are the first consumer devices approved for handling classified NATO information.
- Approval follows rigorous security testing by the German government and compliance with NATO's information assurance requirements.
- Devices can handle classified information up to NATO restricted level without special software or settings.
- Apple's built-in security features, including encryption and Face ID, meet stringent government and international security standards.
- iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 are now listed on the NATO Information Assurance Product Catalogue.
- BSI conducted extensive technical assessments to ensure compliance with NATO nations' security requirements.
- Apple's approach to security is recognized as transforming traditional security delivery methods.
Show HN: Beehive – Multi-Workspace Agent Orchestrator
2 days ago
- Manage multiple GitHub repos in one window with instant switching.
- Full git clones on any branch, each in isolated directories to prevent interference.
- Real PTY sessions persist across workspace and repo switches, maintaining state.
- Launch CLI agents like Claude Code alongside terminals in a flexible grid layout.
- Duplicate workspaces including uncommitted work for safe experimentation.
- Sidebar updates dynamically when switching branches in the terminal.
- Link GitHub repos by URL; Beehive stores references and metadata.
- Clone repos to isolated directories on chosen branches.
- Work on multiple tasks simultaneously with side-by-side terminals and agents.
- Free and open-source; available for download or build from source.
Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor
2 hours ago
- Go from raw footage to a clean, publish-ready edit in minutes.
- Uploads & Assets for planning the next cut.
- Get a strong first pass in minutes, then refine it like a real editor.
- Tight pacing, clean captions, share-ready exports.
- Framing + Captions in seconds.
- Automatically creates stories out of your footage.
- Punchy edits that land on the beat.
- From raw video to polished montage with voiceovers, music, and transitions.
- Pull the best moments from long conversations.
- Pitch your product in style.
- Break down complex topics with clear visuals.
- AI features speed up boring parts without taking control away.
- Cardboard understands semantic meaning and maps to complex timeline operations.
- Review, tweak, and ship edits together without back-and-forth.
- Search clips by content, not filenames.
How to Close a Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories
4 hours ago
- The Diavik Diamond Mine, located in the Northwest Territories, is set to close after commercial operations cease, with plans to restore the site to its natural state.
- The mine's discovery traces back to geologist Chuck Fipke and his partner Stewart Blusson, who found diamonds at Lac de Gras in 1991, leading to the creation of the Ekati and later Diavik mines.
- Diavik has extracted 150 million carats of diamonds since its opening in 2003, significantly contributing to the NWT's economy with $1.2 billion to the GDP in 2023.
- Closure and remediation efforts will span several years, including filling the mine craters with processed kimberlite and flooding them with lake water, alongside monitoring for up to ten years post-closure.
- The closure poses economic challenges for the NWT, with diamond mines having spent $755 million on local goods and services, prompting discussions on transitioning to critical mineral mining and infrastructure projects.
- Employees like Melanie Rabesca reflect on the mine's closure as the end of an era, highlighting the personal and professional growth experienced by workers, alongside the community and family bonds formed over years.
Pentagon officials send Anthropic best and final offer for military use of AI
3 hours ago
- Pentagon officials sent Anthropic a best and final offer for military use of its AI technology ahead of a government-imposed deadline.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set a Friday deadline for Anthropic to grant full lawful use of its AI or lose U.S. military business.
- Anthropic could face being labeled a supply chain risk if it does not comply with the Pentagon's demands.
- The Pentagon is considering invoking the Defense Production Act to gain full control of Anthropic's AI for military operations.
- Anthropic was awarded a $200 million contract in July to develop AI capabilities for U.S. national security.
- Anthropic has requested guardrails to prevent its AI model, Claude, from mass surveillance of Americans, which the Pentagon says is already illegal.
- Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, wants to ensure Claude is not used for final targeting decisions in military operations without human involvement due to potential AI hallucinations and errors.
Child-free 'Disney adults' are transforming the company's theme parks
4 hours ago
- Child-free millennials and Gen Z-ers are increasingly visiting Disney Parks, often in couples or friend groups.
- Disney plans to invest $60 billion in its parks division over the next decade, focusing on adult-oriented experiences.
- Adult visitors, who often have more disposable income, are influencing park offerings, from high-tech rides to upscale dining.
- Disney is introducing more adult-focused attractions and events, such as 'Drinking Around the World' at Epcot and late-night 'After Dark' events.
- The rise of 'Disney adults' is reducing the stigma around adults enjoying Disney Parks, with many embracing Disney-themed fashion and experiences.
- Disney is also catering to adult fans through high-end merchandise, including collaborations with luxury brands like Gucci and Coach.
- Some challenges include balancing adult-focused offerings with family-friendly attractions to avoid alienating younger visitors.
- Social media influencers are playing a significant role in promoting Disney Parks to adult audiences.
Steering interpretable language models with concept algebra
21 hours ago
- Steerling-8B enables concept algebra, allowing addition, removal, and composition of human-understandable concepts at inference time without retraining or prompt engineering.
- The model supports direct editing of internal representations for any concept, facilitating control over generation without altering the prompt.
- Compositional control is essential in multi-turn dialogues, such as content moderation or health assistance, where multiple concepts must be managed simultaneously.
- Current control methods like prompting and fine-tuning are either unreliable or costly, lacking composability and fine-grained control.
- Steerling-8B's concept module provides a linear, algebraic handle on internal variables, enabling both explanation and control of model behavior.
- Mask-aligned injection ensures reliable control during diffusion decoding by aligning concept embeddings with the training distribution.
- Steering can redirect outputs to different domains without changing the prompt, demonstrating versatility in generation control.
- Bottleneck intervention allows for the removal of specific concepts by wiping their contributions before generation.
- Systematic evaluation shows steering significantly improves concept adherence while maintaining high text quality.
- The linear architecture of the concept module ensures predictable effects from interventions, distinguishing it from other control methods.
Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance
2 days ago
- Hacker Smacker helps identify quality authors and filter out obnoxious commenters on Hacker News.
- Users can friend or foe authors, and see friends/foes of their connections if they also use Hacker Smacker.
- Inspired by Slashdot's friend/foe system, it reduces time spent scanning comment threads by highlighting good content.
- Open-source and available on GitHub, with extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Mac App Store.
- Built to explore FoaF (Friend of a Friend) concepts and later applied to NewsBlur's social layer.
- Backend uses Redis sets and CoffeeScript/Node.js, focusing on quick relationship visualization.
SynthID
3 hours ago
- SynthID adds an invisible digital watermark to AI-generated images and videos.
- The watermark does not affect the quality of the image or video.
- It is applied immediately upon content creation.
- Designed to remain detectable despite modifications like cropping, adding filters, changing frame rates, or lossy compression.
I baked a pie every day for a year and it changed my life
3 days ago
- Vickie Hardin Woods, a retired city planner, baked and gave away a pie every day for a year to combat isolation and maintain creativity after her mild cognitive impairment diagnosis.
- She started her project by baking a lemon meringue pie for her aunt, who provided stability during her teenage years, and continued giving pies to friends, strangers, and even a homeless man.
- Hardin Woods found the project heartwarming, especially when recipients expressed gratitude, and became known as 'the pie lady' in her community.
- Before retirement, she had a 30-year career in city planning, which she loved for its ability to bring order to chaos.
- Her personal life included early motherhood at 18, raising three children, and finding stability in her third marriage.
- Beyond pies, she has taken on new projects like daily letter writing and painting, winning a state fair prize for her baking, and writing a book about her pie experience.
- The project taught her that her professional identity wasn't critical to who she is and that she could always do new things.
Google Street View in 2026
3 hours ago
- Dataset documenting Google's global Street View coverage with year and month of last capture.
- Conversion of dataset into Parquet format for geospatial analysis.
- Workstation specifications: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU, 96 GB DDR5 RAM, 4 TB NVMe M.2 SSD.
- Running Ubuntu 24 LTS via Microsoft's Ubuntu for Windows on Windows 11 Pro.
- Use of DuckDB v1.4.3 with H3, JSON, Lindel, Parquet, and Spatial extensions.
- Downloading 131 JSON files (647 MB uncompressed) from geo.emily.bz.
- Creation of a DuckDB table and import of JSON data into it.
- Export of the table as a spatially-sorted, ZStandard-compressed Parquet file (85 MB, 7,163,407 rows).
- Missing data for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Namibia, Paraguay, and Vietnam.
- Point counts by year, showing coverage from 2003 to 2025.
- Visualization of Street View coverage across Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, North America, and Latin America.
New York sues Valve for enabling "illegal gambling" with loot boxes
4 hours ago
- New York state has filed a lawsuit against Valve, alleging that loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2 constitute unregulated gambling.
- The lawsuit highlights that Valve's system allows users to sell virtual items won from loot boxes, with rare items fetching thousands of dollars, fitting the legal definition of gambling.
- Steam Wallet funds from reselling skins have purchasing power equivalent to cash on Steam, and users can convert these funds to real cash by purchasing and reselling hardware like the Steam Deck.
- The author expresses disappointment with Valve's involvement in loot boxes, suggesting they should discontinue the practice due to its negative aspects and reliance on other revenue streams.
The Government Just Made It Harder to See What Spy Tech It Buys
5 hours ago
- FPDS.gov was a crucial resource for tracking U.S. government purchases of surveillance tools.
- The site was shut down and replaced by SAM.gov, which is less user-friendly and transparent.
- FPDS.gov's simple interface allowed easy access to detailed contract information, including vendors, agencies, and product categories.
- Journalists used FPDS to uncover significant government contracts, such as ICE's deals with Palantir.
- SAM.gov complicates searches for past purchases, requiring logins and offering unclear filters.
- The transition to SAM.gov reduces transparency in government spending, impacting investigative journalism.

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