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Claude, Author of the Humanitas
5 hours ago
- The article claims that significant portions of Pope Leo's encyclical on AI, 'Magnifica Humanitas,' were written by AI, particularly Anthropic's Claude.
- Key evidence includes statistical analysis of AI writing 'tells,' such as frequent use of em-dashes, the word 'genuinely,' and tricolons, which are more prevalent in this encyclical compared to past ones.
- Pangram, an AI detector with a low false-positive rate, flagged some paragraphs as 40-100% AI, while others appeared 0% AI, suggesting varied AI usage among contributors.
- The AI indicators are preserved in the Italian version, and backtesting shows past encyclicals score 0% on Pangram, even when AI-translated, indicating the signs are not translation artifacts.
- The analysis suggests that some cardinals used AI assistance heavily, while others, including Pope Leo himself, likely did not, based on the uneven distribution of AI-detected sections.
Analyst on China's spent rocket stages: "Things only continue to get worse"
2 hours ago
- China's orbital rocket launches surged from under 20 annually a decade ago to a record 93 in recent years, making it the world's second-most productive space power.
- Rapid growth in launch activity is driven by both state-owned and private companies, mirroring trends seen in the United States and SpaceX.
- A major concern is China's disregard for established norms in disposing of rocket upper stages, which are parts that propel payloads into orbit.
- Historically, spacefaring nations like the Soviet Union and the U.S. neglected upper stages, leaving them in orbit for decades before gravitational pull brings them down.
- Over the past 20 years, most countries and private companies have adopted more responsible disposal practices to mitigate space debris risks.
- Russia remains the biggest offender, with about 800 metric tons of rocket bodies in long-lived orbits, while the U.S. has around 57 metric tons; these amounts are stable or slowly decreasing.
Fortune: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy
2 hours ago
- Baby Boomers acted as a 'pig in the python,' distorting the economy by dominating labor markets, housing, and leadership roles for decades.
- Their dominance suppressed wages and opportunities for younger generations, and their retirement now threatens worker shortages.
- Boomers disproportionately own large homes, creating supply and affordability challenges for millennial families needing space.
- Boomer leaders often failed to prepare successors, leaving institutions to manage decline rather than transition.
- The generation has maintained disproportionate political power, influencing policies and national debt, with minimal succession planning across sectors.
Internet starts coming back in Iran after months-long blackout
2 hours ago
- Internet access in Iran has begun a partial restoration after being cut off for nearly three months due to U.S. and Israeli attacks.
- The Iranian government imposed the blackout to prevent surveillance, espionage, and cyber-attacks, marking one of the longest national internet shutdowns globally.
- Monitoring groups like Netblocks report that the restoration is partial and uncertain, with heavier filtering and restrictions expected than before the shutdown.
- Iranians have faced significant challenges, including using expensive VPNs and satellite technology to bypass restrictions, and now a premium 'internet pro' scheme for businesses.
- The restoration coincides with Iran condemning recent U.S. strikes, highlighting ongoing tensions despite a ceasefire agreement in April.
Extending MySQL with VillageSQL
3 days ago
- Author reminisces about Neo4j's extensibility and user-created extensions like Unmanaged Extensions and Cypher Stored Procedures.
- VillageSQL brings similar extensibility to MySQL, allowing custom extensions such as Roaring Bitmap data structure integration.
- Development involved using a template repository, AI-assisted coding (Vibe Coding), and overcoming issues with CAST syntax and display size errors.
- Implementation details include creating a custom ROARING64 type with methods like roaring64_to_string and functions for set operations (e.g., intersection).
- Extension testing and deployment required building with specific flags, copying output files, and using commands like INSTALL EXTENSION without server restarts.
- Author highlights VillageSQL's potential for cloud hosting extensions, unlike Neo4j's cloud limitations, and envisions future integration with MySQL's storage layer for advanced querying.
- Encourages exploring DuckDB extensions for inspiration and leveraging AI to streamline development.
Stop Advertising in Your Commits
3 hours ago
- Criticism of adding company ads (like 'Assisted by blabot', 'co-authored-by: slopgpt') in open-source project commits, despite not being paid and paying subscription fees.
- Comparison to using ad blockers while inserting ads, urging to stop this practice and keep commits for technical information, not advertising.
- Suggestions: disclose AI tools in merge requests, mark as 'generated by an LLM', avoid using such tools, or not use AI programming tools, linking to personal stance.
Freediving, Embodiment and Humanity – Joanna Rutkowska
2 days ago
- Freediving involves descending underwater on a single breath, emphasizing freedom, silence, and unity with the marine environment, unlike scuba diving.
- The urge to breathe (UTB) is triggered by CO₂ buildup, not low oxygen, and can be managed by focusing on bodily sensations to tolerate it better.
- Depth diving presents challenges like pressure changes, requiring equalization techniques for middle ears and sinuses to avoid injuries like eardrum rupture.
- Lung compression at depth reduces buoyancy, leading to freefall, but relaxation is crucial to prevent injuries like lung squeeze by surrendering to water pressure.
- Freediving blends subjective bodily awareness with objective performance metrics (depth), acting as a form of meditation that requires physical mastery and cannot be cheated.
- Two approaches exist: the 'red path' of enduring suffering and the 'green path' of finding bliss; a combination may be optimal, with personal preference leaning towards enjoyment.
- Blackouts are a serious risk, often occurring near the surface due to oxygen depletion and pressure changes, highlighting the importance of safety protocols and diving in pairs.
- Freediving fosters deep human connections through shared trust and responsibility, as divers rely on each other for safety, creating non-intellectual emotional bonds.
- The activity ties humanity to embodiment, contrasting with disembodied intelligence, and raises questions about how non-human or AI entities might experience similar challenges.
- Despite its insights into humanity, freediving is not necessary for being humane, as qualities like beauty and love can be appreciated by both embodied and disembodied beings.
In-Browser Container Builds
a day ago
- A web application allows building container images directly in a browser using only client-side code.
- Users can select a base image, specify a shell script for container startup, and export the image as a tar file for use in Docker.
- Container images are simply sets of files that can be downloaded, unpacked, manipulated, and repacked entirely within the browser's sandbox.
- While in-browser container builds are described as a fun gimmick, they highlight the potential of custom container tooling beyond traditional tools like Docker.
- Developing custom container tools can offer significant advantages, such as drastically reducing image creation times and enabling tailored optimizations and caching strategies.
- The demo and its source code are available for experimentation, emphasizing it as a research prototype not suited for serious production use.
News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development – Jeff Geerling
14 hours ago
- The Raspberry Pi 6 is expected around 2026-2027, but Eben Upton suggested it may not arrive until early 2028 due to factors like a global DRAM shortage and high costs.
- Pi 6 will focus on performance improvements like a faster CPU and I/O, rather than new features such as built-in M.2 slots or an AI-specific NPU, with Eben stating the CPU will handle AI compute.
- The Pi Zero 2W faces supply constraints due to AI chip production, but shortages should be temporary as Raspberry Pi brings in a new vendor.
- A Pi Zero 3 is not imminent due to cost challenges with moving away from single-sided PCBs and the expense of newer LPDDR RAM for the $15 price point.
- The Raspberry Pi 3B remains popular, selling nearly a million units a year despite being over a decade old.
- The RP2350 microcontroller development faced power and security challenges, but a silicon revision fixed issues, and USB-C may replace micro USB in future Picos despite cost constraints.
- Microcontroller shipments surpassed Pi SBC sales in 2025, with the gap likely widening as Pi prices rise.
- Software support is a key strength for Raspberry Pi, with the CTO committing 95% of software engineering time to libraries, drivers, kernels, and OS development.
Nearly half (44%) of every T-shirt goes to waste before you even buy it
9 hours ago
- Approximately 44% of textile material is lost during production before garments reach stores.
- Less than 1% of used clothing globally is recycled into new textiles, with a maximum of 17% of fibers from a T-shirt being reused under current systems.
- Improving production efficiency and recycling could increase recyclable material to 44% and reduce environmental impacts like greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10% and other effects by 20–25%.
Xiaomi MiMo-v2.5 Series API Permanent Price Reduction Up to 99%
4 hours ago
- MiMo-V2.5 API series gets permanent price reduction, up to 99% lower, effective May 27, 2026.
- Token Plan billing optimized: usage volume increased 5-8 times without price increase, with clearer rules.
- 100 Trillion Token Creator Incentive Program concluded successfully on May 26, with all tokens distributed.
- Existing Token Plan user quotas fully reset on May 27, applying new billing rules.
- Surprise gifts announced soon for historical paid users whose Token Plans have expired.
- Inference technology optimizations include SWA based on SGLang HiCache and enhanced input throughput.
- Aim is to enable large-scale AI application through low-cost, high-quality model services.
Trump DOJ mass-deletes info on Jan. 6 riot cases, incl violent assaults on cops
2 hours ago
- The Trump administration has mass-deleted Justice Department news releases detailing prosecutions related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, including cases involving assaults on police officers.
- Deleted information includes cases of defendants who pleaded guilty or were convicted of serious assaults on law enforcement, such as using electroshock devices, flagpoles, wooden pallets, pepper spray, and metal chairs, with sentences ranging from 7 to over 14 years in prison.
- The administration defends the deletions as reversing the DOJ's 'weaponization' under Biden and removing 'partisan propaganda,' while also taking broader actions like pardoning all January 6 defendants, firing prosecutors, and creating an 'Anti-Weaponization Fund' that may provide payouts to rioters.
- Police officers assaulted during the riot report lifelong physical and psychological injuries, with some suing to prevent payouts from the fund, as critics argue the administration is trying to rewrite the history of the attack to condone future threats to democracy.
- NPR maintains a comprehensive, accessible database and visual archive of January 6 prosecutions, used by various stakeholders, and is pursuing legal action to obtain additional undisclosed video evidence from the government.
You Can Start Building LLM Skills Before You Know the Whole Shape
4 hours ago
- Begin automation efforts with a single useful behavior rather than designing a complex system upfront.
- Define automation clearly by naming specific functions (e.g., scanning, fixing, reviewing) to avoid ambiguity and focus on actionable tasks.
- Create a skill around a narrow scope, such as fixing one violation in one file, to enable immediate testing and iteration based on real use.
- Iteratively refine the skill by observing its performance on actual problems, adjusting descriptions, scope, and outputs to close gaps.
- Allow the skill to grow organically through accretion, adding features only when demanded by practical needs, not pre-designed diagrams.
- Incorporate human checkpoints (e.g., review, approval) as intentional design elements to maintain judgment and reliability.
- Start building immediately with a minimal viable skill, letting its shape emerge from real-world application rather than upfront planning.
Coalton is an efficient, statically typed Lisp with ideas from Haskell and OCaml
7 hours ago
- Coalton is an efficient, statically typed functional programming language that enhances Common Lisp.
- It incorporates concepts from Haskell, Scheme, and OCaml.
- The language was discussed by Robert Smith in a talk at ELS 2025 in May 2025.
The AI Industry Just Walked into the Vatican
3 hours ago
- The Pope issued the first papal encyclical focused on AI, titled 'Magnifica Humanitas', with Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah present.
- AI is framed as a societal rupture comparable to the Industrial Revolution, affecting power, work, and human usefulness, not just a tech cycle.
- Big Tech, which previously dismissed old institutions, now seeks help from entities like the Vatican to govern AI development.
- Olah called for scrutiny from governments, religious leaders, and civil society, addressing tensions like commercial pressure and job displacement.
- The encyclical warns that 'automatic general prosperity' from AI is often illusory, raising moral and political questions about benefits and disruption.
- Critics focus on technology or consciousness debates, but the Vatican emphasizes AI as a societal shift involving labor, power, and dignity.
- While the Vatican engages with AI's broad impacts, Washington treats it as a tech story, influenced by profit-driven interests.
My new obsession: A horse-racing board game of pure luck
a day ago
- The author is obsessed with a horse-racing board game that relies purely on luck, with no direct player control over the horses or betting.
- The game has been released under multiple titles like 'Dubble Kross' and 'The Horse Race Game', adding to its mysterious, possibly public domain or folk-game origins.
- Classic Mode involves a skill-free setup where players deal cards, scratch horses via dice rolls, and contribute chips to a pot based on matching cards, followed by a race phase and payout.
- Advanced Mode introduces additional cards like kings, aces, and jokers with special abilities, along with a two-pot system and chain penalty scratch mode for more strategy.
- Various house rules, such as Jesse Schellenberg's variant allowing card purchases or George Husted's variant incorporating wagering and special card effects, add player agency and variations.
Don't orchestrate your agents, give them the tools to do it themselves
a day ago
- Bootstrap a team with one command by cloning a template repo, creating the team, installing role playbooks, and provisioning workspaces for each agent.
- Agents are not orchestrated; they coordinate themselves via addresses, roles, shared workspace, task board, mail, and chat.
- Each agent has a routable address and role playbook; they look up roles and communicate directly, eliminating central dispatchers.
- A shared task board allows agents to claim work atomically based on their roles; adding new agents enables parallel claims.
- Communication includes synchronous chat for blocking handoffs and asynchronous mail for FYIs; agents choose based on need.
- Use locks for cooperative serialization when agents might conflict, ensuring no global ordering is required.
- Five playbooks (aweb-bootstrap, aweb-identity, aweb-team-membership, aweb-coordination, aweb-messaging) guide team coordination.
- Support for hosted custodial identities allows browser- and MCP-based agents to join teams with the same primitives.
- Free tier available with 50 messages/day, open source, no credit card required, and no vendor lock-in.
It's not just SpaceX: Big Tech is dominating bond markets too
4 hours ago
- Big Tech companies are dominating bond markets, not just SpaceX.
- The Financial Times offers premium content with expert, reliable, and actionable investment insights.
- Readers appreciate the content for being succinct, insightful, and timely, without unnecessary filler.
Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI
4 hours ago
- The article discusses the decline of Stack Overflow's forum activity, attributing it partly to the rise of AI, though AI also contributes to the company's continued relevance.
- Complex questions are still asked on Stack Overflow due to its high-quality, human-curated data, which remains valuable for AI training.
- Other factors for the decline include saturation of fundamental programming questions, few new major programming languages, migration to GitHub/GitLab, and toxic behavior on the platform.
- The author analyzes SEDE data to track trends in questions, answers, and comments over time, showing a drop in interaction ratios like answers per question.
- SQL queries are used to generate graphs on post types and comments, revealing a steady decline in engagement metrics since around 2018.
- The post includes technical details on SQL queries, such as using CTEs, JOINs, and handling overflow errors, to aggregate and visualize data from Stack Exchange.
- Various SEDE URL forms and features are outlined, highlighting its utility for data analysis despite rate limiting and archiving challenges.
- The author expresses concern that declining interaction ratios may indicate lower quality and engagement on the platform.
Crypto code commits fall 75% as developers move to AI projects
19 hours ago
- Weekly crypto code commits fell ~75% from ~850,000 to ~210,000 since early 2025, with active developers declining ~56% to ~4,600.
- AI repositories are absorbing developer talent, with AI-related repos on GitHub growing rapidly; LLM SDK imports surged ~178%, and generative AI projects attract over 1 million monthly contributors.
- Key AI tools like Jupyter Notebooks repos grew ~75%, Dockerfile repos jumped ~120%, and TypeScript became GitHub's most-used language.
- Major blockchain ecosystems like Ethereum, Solana, and Base lost significant developers (34%, 40%, and 52%, respectively).
- Newer chains (Aptos, BNB Chain, Celo) fared worst, with developer losses up to 85%; only wallet infrastructure grew modestly (~6%).
- Crypto developer activity peaked in 2022 (~31,000 monthly active) and declined to ~23,600 in 2024, with projections of ~18,000 by mid-2025.
- Experienced developers (>2 years tenure) now produce ~70% of commits, while part-time contributors and newcomers declined sharply (~58%).
- AI offers a competitive alternative with deep funding and commercial demand, potentially making this talent drain harder to reverse compared to past cycles.
- Crypto activity could rebound in a bull market, but AI's growth contrasts with GitHub's overall expansion (~36 million new developers in 2025).

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Hasty Briefsbeta

Claude, Author of the Humanitas

Analyst on China's spent rocket stages: "Things only continue to get worse"

Fortune: Baby Boomers are strangling the economy

Internet starts coming back in Iran after months-long blackout

Extending MySQL with VillageSQL

Stop Advertising in Your Commits

Freediving, Embodiment and Humanity – Joanna Rutkowska

In-Browser Container Builds

News about Raspberry Pi 6 and Microcontroller Development – Jeff Geerling

Nearly half (44%) of every T-shirt goes to waste before you even buy it

Xiaomi MiMo-v2.5 Series API Permanent Price Reduction Up to 99%

Trump DOJ mass-deletes info on Jan. 6 riot cases, incl violent assaults on cops

You Can Start Building LLM Skills Before You Know the Whole Shape

Coalton is an efficient, statically typed Lisp with ideas from Haskell and OCaml

The AI Industry Just Walked into the Vatican

My new obsession: A horse-racing board game of pure luck

Don't orchestrate your agents, give them the tools to do it themselves

It's not just SpaceX: Big Tech is dominating bond markets too

Stack Overflow's forum is dead thanks to AI

Crypto code commits fall 75% as developers move to AI projects