Hasty Briefsbeta

Bilingual

Trump Is Backing a Stock-Trading Ban That Doesn't Ban Trading Stocks
3 hours ago
- President Trump urged Congress to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act during the State of the Union, but the bill has significant loopholes.
- The bill allows lawmakers to keep existing stocks, reinvest dividends, and buy stocks for parents, avoiding a true ban on insider trading.
- Critics, including Rep. Joe Morelle and good-government groups, argue the bill is misleading and fails to address self-dealing in other branches of government.
- Alternative legislation, like the Restore Trust in Congress Act, proposes stricter bans on trading for lawmakers, the President, and Supreme Court justices.
- Despite bipartisan support for ethics reform, passing stricter measures faces challenges, including potential vetoes and procedural hurdles in Congress.
- Recent examples of lawmakers failing to disclose trades highlight ongoing transparency issues under current laws.
Announcing DuckDB 1.5.0
7 hours ago
- DuckDB 1.5.0, codenamed 'Variegata', is released with new features including a friendly CLI, VARIANT type, and built-in GEOMETRY type.
- The CLI has been reworked with a new color scheme, dynamic prompts, a pager, and convenience features like accessing the last result with '_'.
- A new PEG parser is introduced for better suggestions and error messages, currently experimental and opt-in.
- The VARIANT type is now supported, allowing storage of different types in the same column with better compression and query performance.
- New functions include read_duckdb for reading databases without attaching them and Azure writes for copying data to Azure Blob or ADLSv2 storage.
- An ODBC scanner extension is introduced, enabling querying of remote endpoints.
- Lakehouse formats (DuckLake, Delta Lake, Iceberg) have received updates, including VARIANT type support and table properties in CREATE TABLE statements.
- The network stack for the httpfs extension has changed from httplib to curl for better stability and security.
- Lambda syntax has been updated to Python-style (lambda x: x + 1), with the old arrow syntax (x -> x + 1) deprecated.
- The spatial extension has significant changes, including flipping axis order for consistency and moving GEOMETRY type into core DuckDB.
- Optimizations include non-blocking checkpointing for concurrent operations and improvements in aggregate functions.
- Distribution improvements include Python pip installation, a Windows install script (beta), and CLI support for Linux with musl libc.
- Extension sizes have been reduced, with some extensions seeing a 30-60% decrease in size.
Using moon dirt to build future lunar colonies
6 hours ago
- Simulated lunar dirt (regolith simulant) can be turned into durable structures using laser 3D printing.
- This method could help build sturdy, heat-resistant habitats and tools for future NASA Artemis missions.
- The material's quality depends on the surface it's printed on, with alumina-silicate ceramic showing the best adhesion.
- Environmental factors like oxygen levels, laser strength, and printing speed impact the structure's stability.
- Additive manufacturing in space could reduce the need to transport materials from Earth, saving time and resources.
- Future systems might use solar-driven or hybrid power architectures for scalability in space.
- The research could also improve sustainability on Earth by optimizing resource use in manufacturing.
Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe
5 hours ago
- Corpus Christi faces an imminent water crisis, threatening jet fuel supplies to Texas airports and oil exports from one of the nation's largest petroleum ports.
- City officials warn of a 'water emergency' within months, with total depletion possible next year, leading to potential economic shocks and mass layoffs.
- Critics blame poor planning and a decade-long failure to build a seawater desalination plant, exacerbating the crisis.
- Industrial water users, including major refineries, are exempt from curtailment, raising concerns about economic and safety impacts.
- Emergency measures, such as trucking in water or building temporary pipelines, could cost billions and may not prevent a city-wide evacuation.
- Local leaders express optimism about new groundwater projects, but experts doubt their timely completion.
- The crisis stems from rapid industrial expansion post-shale boom, coupled with inadequate water infrastructure planning.
- Desalination projects, once seen as a solution, have been mired in controversy, cost overruns, and eventual cancellation.
- Environmentalists and activists have opposed desalination, citing ecological risks and mismanagement.
- The situation highlights broader issues of water resource management and climate resilience in semi-arid regions.
Anthropic sues US defense department over blacklisting
3 hours ago
- Anthropic filed two lawsuits against the Department of Defense, challenging its 'supply chain risk' designation.
- The lawsuits allege the designation is unlawful and violates Anthropic's First Amendment rights.
- The dispute stems from Anthropic's safeguards against military misuse of its AI models for surveillance or autonomous weapons.
- Anthropic claims the government is punishing it for not complying with ideological demands, infringing on protected speech.
- Anthropic's AI model, Claude, has been widely used by the DoD, including in classified systems and military operations.
- Despite the lawsuits, Anthropic remains committed to providing AI for national security and seeks continued negotiations.
- Anthropic alleges the government's actions are causing irreparable harm, contradicting earlier statements about minimal impact.
- The DoD has not yet responded to requests for comment on the lawsuits.
The Arrogance of Ignorance. – By James Fallows
5 hours ago
- The author reflects on 45 years of interviewing experts about peace and war, applying lessons to recent events.
- Key insights include the importance of strategic foresight and adaptability in warfare, distinguishing victors from the defeated.
- The concept of 'quantity vs quality' in warfare is highlighted, with examples from Vietnam and modern drone warfare.
- The author's 2002 articles warned against the Iraq War unless fully prepared for long-term consequences, emphasizing the need to exhaust all other options first.
- A 2004 war game scenario about Iran concluded that military solutions are ineffective, and diplomacy is essential.
- A 2015 article criticized the ease with which political leaders commit to wars without public accountability, quoting Admiral Mike Mullen on the need for public engagement in war decisions.
- Five critical questions and sayings about war and peace are presented, emphasizing the importance of asking 'How does this end?' before committing to military actions.
- The author views recent events as among the most self-destructive for the U.S., worse than past tragedies because current leaders have ignored hard-earned lessons.
A modder runs GTA V in Linux on PS5
3 hours ago
- Modder Andy Nguyen successfully ported Linux to the PS5.
- Demonstrated GTA 5 Enhanced Edition running at ~60 FPS with ray tracing.
- 4K HDMI video output and audio are functioning correctly.
- All PS5 USB ports are working normally.
- CPU runs at 3.2 GHz, GPU at 2.0 GHz (can be boosted but causes overheating).
- Setup only works on older PS5 firmware versions due to full chain exploit requirement.
Promptfoo Is Joining OpenAI
2 hours ago
- Promptfoo is being acquired by OpenAI.
- Promptfoo will remain open source and continue serving users and customers.
- Founded in 2024, Promptfoo helps developers test AI applications, focusing on security and safety.
- Over 350k developers have used Promptfoo, with 130k active monthly users and 25% of Fortune 500 companies relying on it.
- The acquisition aims to integrate Promptfoo's tech into OpenAI's model and infrastructure layers for early vulnerability detection.
- OpenAI will provide more resources and research access to enhance Promptfoo's mission of secure AI deployment.
- The team will ensure service continuity and maintain the open-source suite for red teaming, static scanning, and evaluations.
- Gratitude expressed to investors, team members, and the community for their support and contributions.
Show HN: Zenòdot – Find if a book has been translated into your language
4 hours ago
- Discover book translations from around the world.
- Choose languages of interest.
- Search for a book or find translations.
- For rare or old editions, searching by ISBN yields better results.
- Zenòdot is an independent cultural project created by Ausiàs Tsel.
The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19
5 hours ago
- Egg freezing can extend a woman's fertility window by over a decade, allowing childbirth into the 50s.
- Optimal age for egg freezing is between 19 and 26, contrary to standard advice of mid-30s.
- Success metrics in IVF ignore births beyond the first from the same egg retrieval, masking benefits of early freezing.
- Polygenic embryo screening benefits decline with age due to fewer viable embryos.
- Stem cell-derived eggs are not yet commercially viable and carry mutation risks.
- Cost-effective options like CNY Fertility offer egg freezing for $6,000-$7,000 per retrieval.
- Luxury option Dr. Aimee provides high-end IVF services at $25k-$40k per round.
- Most women need 1-3 egg retrieval rounds for desired family size; 2-5 for polygenic embryo selection.
- Insurance in California may cover egg freezing, especially for married women.
- Early egg freezing is recommended for maximizing fertility and genetic screening benefits.
JSLinux Now Supports x86_64
3 hours ago
- Available emulated systems include x86_64 and x86 with Alpine Linux, Windows 2000, and FreeDOS.
- RISC-V (riscv64) systems include Buildroot and Fedora 33, both with console and X Window interfaces.
- Most systems support VFsync access except Windows 2000 and FreeDOS.
- X Window interfaces provide right mouse button menu access.
- Fedora 33 systems have a warning about longer boot times.
DARPA's new X-76 Experimental Plane
3 hours ago
- SPRINT X-76 enters build phase to demonstrate runway-independent, high-speed flight.
- Goal is to eliminate the trade-off between high-speed aircraft needing runways and flexible, slower helicopters.
- X-76 is being built by Bell Textron, Inc. after a successful Critical Design Review (CDR).
- The SPRINT program is a joint effort between DARPA and U.S. Special Operations Command.
- X-76 aims to combine jet-like cruise performance with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities.
- Phase 2 focuses on manufacturing, integration, assembly, and ground testing of the X-76 demonstrator.
- Key capabilities include cruise speeds exceeding 400 knots, hovering in austere environments, and operating from unprepared surfaces.
- Flight test program (Phase 3) is planned for early 2028.
Building a Procedural Hex Map with Wave Function Collapse
3 hours ago
- Procedural medieval islands generated using Wave Function Collapse (WFC) algorithm.
- Hex tiles with 6 edges add complexity compared to traditional square tiles.
- Tile definitions include terrain types for each edge and weights for selection bias.
- WFC starts with all possibilities, collapses cells with lowest entropy, and propagates constraints.
- Multi-grid approach splits the map into 19 hexagonal grids to manage complexity.
- Backtracking and a layered recovery system handle WFC failures and cross-grid boundary issues.
- Elevation adds a 3D constraint, requiring roads and rivers to align across levels.
- Hex coordinates use cube coordinates (q, r, s) for easier neighbor finding and distance calculations.
- Perlin noise is used for organic placement of trees and buildings, separate from WFC.
- Water effects include animated caustics and coastal waves, with special handling for coves.
- 3D tiles are created in Blender, ensuring alignment and correct UV mapping.
- WebGPU and TSL shaders enhance rendering, with post-processing for atmosphere.
- Optimizations include BatchedMesh for efficient rendering and shared materials to reduce GPU load.
- The project combines procedural generation with artistic touches to create explorable, varied maps.
Florida Judge Rules Red Light Camera Tickets Are Unconstitutional
3 hours ago
- A Broward County judge dismissed a red-light camera ticket, ruling the state law unconstitutional for shifting the burden of proof onto vehicle owners.
- Judge Steven P. DeLuca found the law violates due process by presuming the registered owner is responsible unless proven otherwise.
- The case involved a Sunrise citation where the defendant argued the statute unfairly required owners to prove they weren't driving.
- The judge labeled red-light camera cases as 'quasi-criminal' due to potential penalties and impacts on driving records.
- Attorney Joel Mumford noted the ruling could inspire challenges in other counties, potentially leading to broader changes if appealed.
- Critics, including advocacy group StopTheCams, hailed the decision as a victory against unfair automated enforcement.
- Supporters argue red-light cameras improve intersection safety, but opponents call for their removal, citing unfair penalties.
- The ruling currently applies only to Broward County, but it may influence future legal challenges statewide.
Anthropic sues Defense Department over supply chain risk designation
4 hours ago
- Anthropic filed a complaint against the Department of Defense (DOD) over being labeled a supply chain risk.
- The conflict arose from disagreements on military access to Anthropic's AI systems, with red lines against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued for unrestricted AI access for 'any lawful purpose.'
- Anthropic called the DOD's actions 'unprecedented and unlawful,' citing constitutional protections for speech.
- The supply chain risk label typically applies to foreign adversaries and restricts Pentagon-related entities from using Anthropic's models.
Crow Watch: A Hacker News Alternative
10 hours ago
- 2ZIP Code First (zipcodefirst.com)
- 2printf.news (printf.news)
- 1Cloud VM Benchmarks 2026: Performance and Price Analysis (devblog.ecuadors.net)
- 1How to Run Qwen 3.5 Locally (unsloth.ai)
- 1Linux Ported to PS5, Enabling Steam Machine Capabilities (xcancel.com)
- 1Telemetry helps, you still get to turn it off (ritter.vg)
- 1Pushing and Pulling: Three Reactivity Algorithms (jonathan-frere.com)
- 3My Favorite 39C3 Talks (asindu.xyz)
- 2The Internals of PostgreSQL: An In-Depth Guide (interdb.jp)
- 1When you make a release that’s okay (unsung.aresluna.org)
- 1Proposal: Adding UUID Package to Go's Standard Library (github.com/golang)
- 1Some Words on WigglyPaint (beyondloom.com)
- 2Boy I was wrong about the Fediverse (matduggan.com)
- 1The Machine That Waits (designrepcom.com)
- 2Pain and Cephering (arch.dog)
- 1Partnering with Mozilla to Improve Firefox’s Security (anthropic.com)
- 1A New Chapter for the Nix Language, Courtesy of WebAssembly (determinate.systems)
- 1Observations from a decade building Distributed Systems (philipotoole.com)
- 1Distributive Conditional Types (shaky.sh)
- 3Oberon System 3 supports Multiboot and nicely runs on QEMU (github.com/rochus-keller)
- 1Build your own SQS or Kafka with Postgres (blog.sequinstream.com)
AMD Expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Family with 8 to 12 Core Parts – ServeTheHome
5 hours ago
- AMD expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 family with 8, 10, and 12-core chips.
- Target markets include automotive, industrial, robotics, healthcare, and broadcast.
- New chips feature Zen 5 CPU, RDNA 3.5 GPU, and XDNA 2 NPU architectures.
- Performance improvements include up to 2x CPU and 4x GPU performance.
- Higher-end SKUs support up to 16 GPU CUs and industrial temperature ranges (-40°C).
- Memory options include LPDDR5X-8533 (bandwidth-focused) and DDR5-5600 (ECC support).
- TDP ranges from 15W to 54W, with 28W nominal for new SKUs.
- Reference boards with DDR5 SO-DIMM slots and PCIe x4 will launch in H2 2024.
- Chips sampling now, full production starts in Q3 2024.
Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein Had a Yearslong Relationship
4 hours ago
- Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein had a yearslong relationship, with Epstein attempting to connect Thiel with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak on multiple occasions.
- Epstein facilitated meetings between Thiel and Barak, discussing topics like Israeli national security and leveraging tech for security purposes.
- Thiel's company, Palantir, has a strategic partnership with the Israel Ministry of Defense, providing AI tools used in military operations, including in Gaza.
- Epstein played a role in connecting Thiel to Israeli cybersecurity ventures, including Guardicore and Carbyne, with Thiel's Founders Fund investing in these startups.
- Barak sought Thiel's expertise in AI and warfare, proposing a seminar on the subject with top tech leaders.
- Epstein's connections helped Thiel deepen ties with Israel's tech and military sectors, contributing to Palantir's involvement in controversial military operations.
- Thiel's alignment with Israel and the far-right reflects a broader trend among Silicon Valley elites supporting militarization and anti-'wokeness'.
Anthropic investors grow frustrated with CEO after feds ban AI startup
3 hours ago
- Anthropic investors are frustrated with CEO Dario Amodei's combative stance toward the Trump administration.
- Investors fear Amodei's approach could worsen tensions and increase business risks related to the Pentagon dispute.
- Anthropic's refusal to drop AI safeguards for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance is central to the conflict.
- Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors are complying with the government's ban on Anthropic's technology.
- The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to phase out Anthropic's AI within six months.
- OpenAI is benefiting from the fallout, securing a Pentagon agreement as agencies switch to its models.
- Anthropic's political and ideological leanings, highlighted by controversial blog posts, have fueled government concerns.
- Major tech backers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft support Anthropic, but their stance on the dispute is unclear.
Algebraic topology: knots links and braids
5 hours ago
- A knot is a simple closed curve in Euclidean 3-space (E(3)), and two knots are equivalent if there's an orientation-preserving homeomorphism mapping one to the other.
- Schoenflies proved in 1908 that homeomorphisms from simple closed curves in the plane (E(2)) to the unit circle (S(1)) can be extended to the entire plane, but this doesn't hold in higher dimensions.
- Wild embeddings in E(3) exist, such as Alexander's horned sphere and Antoine's necklace, where complements are not simply connected.
- Knots are typically studied as tame embeddings, like simple closed polygonal curves, to avoid wild behavior.
- Knot diagrams are projections into E(2) with over/under-crossing indications, sufficient to reconstruct the knot up to equivalence.
- Reidemeister moves define equivalence between knot diagrams: two diagrams represent the same knot if one can be transformed into the other via these moves.
- The unknot is the unique knot with a diagram without crossings.
- Knot composition involves tying two oriented knots sequentially, with the unknot acting as a zero element.
- A knot is prime if it cannot be expressed as a sum of two non-trivial knots, and every knot has a unique prime factorization.
- Seifert surfaces are used to define the genus of a knot, which is additive under composition and zero only for the unknot.
- Alternating knots have diagrams where overcrossings and undercrossings alternate, and most prime knots with ≤8 crossings are alternating.
- Knot invariants, like the fundamental group of the complement or the Jones polynomial, help distinguish inequivalent knots.
- Links are disjoint unions of knots, and trivial links have free fundamental groups for their complements.
- Braids are collections of arcs in E(3), and the braid group B(n) is generated by elementary braids with specific relations.
- Alexander's theorem states that every link is equivalent to one obtained from a braid by identifying its endpoints.

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Trump Is Backing a Stock-Trading Ban That Doesn't Ban Trading Stocks
3 hours ago
- President Trump urged Congress to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act during the State of the Union, but the bill has significant loopholes.
- The bill allows lawmakers to keep existing stocks, reinvest dividends, and buy stocks for parents, avoiding a true ban on insider trading.
- Critics, including Rep. Joe Morelle and good-government groups, argue the bill is misleading and fails to address self-dealing in other branches of government.
- Alternative legislation, like the Restore Trust in Congress Act, proposes stricter bans on trading for lawmakers, the President, and Supreme Court justices.
- Despite bipartisan support for ethics reform, passing stricter measures faces challenges, including potential vetoes and procedural hurdles in Congress.
- Recent examples of lawmakers failing to disclose trades highlight ongoing transparency issues under current laws.
Announcing DuckDB 1.5.0
7 hours ago
- DuckDB 1.5.0, codenamed 'Variegata', is released with new features including a friendly CLI, VARIANT type, and built-in GEOMETRY type.
- The CLI has been reworked with a new color scheme, dynamic prompts, a pager, and convenience features like accessing the last result with '_'.
- A new PEG parser is introduced for better suggestions and error messages, currently experimental and opt-in.
- The VARIANT type is now supported, allowing storage of different types in the same column with better compression and query performance.
- New functions include read_duckdb for reading databases without attaching them and Azure writes for copying data to Azure Blob or ADLSv2 storage.
- An ODBC scanner extension is introduced, enabling querying of remote endpoints.
- Lakehouse formats (DuckLake, Delta Lake, Iceberg) have received updates, including VARIANT type support and table properties in CREATE TABLE statements.
- The network stack for the httpfs extension has changed from httplib to curl for better stability and security.
- Lambda syntax has been updated to Python-style (lambda x: x + 1), with the old arrow syntax (x -> x + 1) deprecated.
- The spatial extension has significant changes, including flipping axis order for consistency and moving GEOMETRY type into core DuckDB.
- Optimizations include non-blocking checkpointing for concurrent operations and improvements in aggregate functions.
- Distribution improvements include Python pip installation, a Windows install script (beta), and CLI support for Linux with musl libc.
- Extension sizes have been reduced, with some extensions seeing a 30-60% decrease in size.
Using moon dirt to build future lunar colonies
6 hours ago
- Simulated lunar dirt (regolith simulant) can be turned into durable structures using laser 3D printing.
- This method could help build sturdy, heat-resistant habitats and tools for future NASA Artemis missions.
- The material's quality depends on the surface it's printed on, with alumina-silicate ceramic showing the best adhesion.
- Environmental factors like oxygen levels, laser strength, and printing speed impact the structure's stability.
- Additive manufacturing in space could reduce the need to transport materials from Earth, saving time and resources.
- Future systems might use solar-driven or hybrid power architectures for scalability in space.
- The research could also improve sustainability on Earth by optimizing resource use in manufacturing.
Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe
5 hours ago
- Corpus Christi faces an imminent water crisis, threatening jet fuel supplies to Texas airports and oil exports from one of the nation's largest petroleum ports.
- City officials warn of a 'water emergency' within months, with total depletion possible next year, leading to potential economic shocks and mass layoffs.
- Critics blame poor planning and a decade-long failure to build a seawater desalination plant, exacerbating the crisis.
- Industrial water users, including major refineries, are exempt from curtailment, raising concerns about economic and safety impacts.
- Emergency measures, such as trucking in water or building temporary pipelines, could cost billions and may not prevent a city-wide evacuation.
- Local leaders express optimism about new groundwater projects, but experts doubt their timely completion.
- The crisis stems from rapid industrial expansion post-shale boom, coupled with inadequate water infrastructure planning.
- Desalination projects, once seen as a solution, have been mired in controversy, cost overruns, and eventual cancellation.
- Environmentalists and activists have opposed desalination, citing ecological risks and mismanagement.
- The situation highlights broader issues of water resource management and climate resilience in semi-arid regions.
Anthropic sues US defense department over blacklisting
3 hours ago
- Anthropic filed two lawsuits against the Department of Defense, challenging its 'supply chain risk' designation.
- The lawsuits allege the designation is unlawful and violates Anthropic's First Amendment rights.
- The dispute stems from Anthropic's safeguards against military misuse of its AI models for surveillance or autonomous weapons.
- Anthropic claims the government is punishing it for not complying with ideological demands, infringing on protected speech.
- Anthropic's AI model, Claude, has been widely used by the DoD, including in classified systems and military operations.
- Despite the lawsuits, Anthropic remains committed to providing AI for national security and seeks continued negotiations.
- Anthropic alleges the government's actions are causing irreparable harm, contradicting earlier statements about minimal impact.
- The DoD has not yet responded to requests for comment on the lawsuits.
The Arrogance of Ignorance. – By James Fallows
5 hours ago
- The author reflects on 45 years of interviewing experts about peace and war, applying lessons to recent events.
- Key insights include the importance of strategic foresight and adaptability in warfare, distinguishing victors from the defeated.
- The concept of 'quantity vs quality' in warfare is highlighted, with examples from Vietnam and modern drone warfare.
- The author's 2002 articles warned against the Iraq War unless fully prepared for long-term consequences, emphasizing the need to exhaust all other options first.
- A 2004 war game scenario about Iran concluded that military solutions are ineffective, and diplomacy is essential.
- A 2015 article criticized the ease with which political leaders commit to wars without public accountability, quoting Admiral Mike Mullen on the need for public engagement in war decisions.
- Five critical questions and sayings about war and peace are presented, emphasizing the importance of asking 'How does this end?' before committing to military actions.
- The author views recent events as among the most self-destructive for the U.S., worse than past tragedies because current leaders have ignored hard-earned lessons.
A modder runs GTA V in Linux on PS5
3 hours ago
- Modder Andy Nguyen successfully ported Linux to the PS5.
- Demonstrated GTA 5 Enhanced Edition running at ~60 FPS with ray tracing.
- 4K HDMI video output and audio are functioning correctly.
- All PS5 USB ports are working normally.
- CPU runs at 3.2 GHz, GPU at 2.0 GHz (can be boosted but causes overheating).
- Setup only works on older PS5 firmware versions due to full chain exploit requirement.
Promptfoo Is Joining OpenAI
2 hours ago
- Promptfoo is being acquired by OpenAI.
- Promptfoo will remain open source and continue serving users and customers.
- Founded in 2024, Promptfoo helps developers test AI applications, focusing on security and safety.
- Over 350k developers have used Promptfoo, with 130k active monthly users and 25% of Fortune 500 companies relying on it.
- The acquisition aims to integrate Promptfoo's tech into OpenAI's model and infrastructure layers for early vulnerability detection.
- OpenAI will provide more resources and research access to enhance Promptfoo's mission of secure AI deployment.
- The team will ensure service continuity and maintain the open-source suite for red teaming, static scanning, and evaluations.
- Gratitude expressed to investors, team members, and the community for their support and contributions.
Show HN: Zenòdot – Find if a book has been translated into your language
4 hours ago
- Discover book translations from around the world.
- Choose languages of interest.
- Search for a book or find translations.
- For rare or old editions, searching by ISBN yields better results.
- Zenòdot is an independent cultural project created by Ausiàs Tsel.
The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19
5 hours ago
- Egg freezing can extend a woman's fertility window by over a decade, allowing childbirth into the 50s.
- Optimal age for egg freezing is between 19 and 26, contrary to standard advice of mid-30s.
- Success metrics in IVF ignore births beyond the first from the same egg retrieval, masking benefits of early freezing.
- Polygenic embryo screening benefits decline with age due to fewer viable embryos.
- Stem cell-derived eggs are not yet commercially viable and carry mutation risks.
- Cost-effective options like CNY Fertility offer egg freezing for $6,000-$7,000 per retrieval.
- Luxury option Dr. Aimee provides high-end IVF services at $25k-$40k per round.
- Most women need 1-3 egg retrieval rounds for desired family size; 2-5 for polygenic embryo selection.
- Insurance in California may cover egg freezing, especially for married women.
- Early egg freezing is recommended for maximizing fertility and genetic screening benefits.
JSLinux Now Supports x86_64
3 hours ago
- Available emulated systems include x86_64 and x86 with Alpine Linux, Windows 2000, and FreeDOS.
- RISC-V (riscv64) systems include Buildroot and Fedora 33, both with console and X Window interfaces.
- Most systems support VFsync access except Windows 2000 and FreeDOS.
- X Window interfaces provide right mouse button menu access.
- Fedora 33 systems have a warning about longer boot times.
DARPA's new X-76 Experimental Plane
3 hours ago
- SPRINT X-76 enters build phase to demonstrate runway-independent, high-speed flight.
- Goal is to eliminate the trade-off between high-speed aircraft needing runways and flexible, slower helicopters.
- X-76 is being built by Bell Textron, Inc. after a successful Critical Design Review (CDR).
- The SPRINT program is a joint effort between DARPA and U.S. Special Operations Command.
- X-76 aims to combine jet-like cruise performance with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities.
- Phase 2 focuses on manufacturing, integration, assembly, and ground testing of the X-76 demonstrator.
- Key capabilities include cruise speeds exceeding 400 knots, hovering in austere environments, and operating from unprepared surfaces.
- Flight test program (Phase 3) is planned for early 2028.
Building a Procedural Hex Map with Wave Function Collapse
3 hours ago
- Procedural medieval islands generated using Wave Function Collapse (WFC) algorithm.
- Hex tiles with 6 edges add complexity compared to traditional square tiles.
- Tile definitions include terrain types for each edge and weights for selection bias.
- WFC starts with all possibilities, collapses cells with lowest entropy, and propagates constraints.
- Multi-grid approach splits the map into 19 hexagonal grids to manage complexity.
- Backtracking and a layered recovery system handle WFC failures and cross-grid boundary issues.
- Elevation adds a 3D constraint, requiring roads and rivers to align across levels.
- Hex coordinates use cube coordinates (q, r, s) for easier neighbor finding and distance calculations.
- Perlin noise is used for organic placement of trees and buildings, separate from WFC.
- Water effects include animated caustics and coastal waves, with special handling for coves.
- 3D tiles are created in Blender, ensuring alignment and correct UV mapping.
- WebGPU and TSL shaders enhance rendering, with post-processing for atmosphere.
- Optimizations include BatchedMesh for efficient rendering and shared materials to reduce GPU load.
- The project combines procedural generation with artistic touches to create explorable, varied maps.
Florida Judge Rules Red Light Camera Tickets Are Unconstitutional
3 hours ago
- A Broward County judge dismissed a red-light camera ticket, ruling the state law unconstitutional for shifting the burden of proof onto vehicle owners.
- Judge Steven P. DeLuca found the law violates due process by presuming the registered owner is responsible unless proven otherwise.
- The case involved a Sunrise citation where the defendant argued the statute unfairly required owners to prove they weren't driving.
- The judge labeled red-light camera cases as 'quasi-criminal' due to potential penalties and impacts on driving records.
- Attorney Joel Mumford noted the ruling could inspire challenges in other counties, potentially leading to broader changes if appealed.
- Critics, including advocacy group StopTheCams, hailed the decision as a victory against unfair automated enforcement.
- Supporters argue red-light cameras improve intersection safety, but opponents call for their removal, citing unfair penalties.
- The ruling currently applies only to Broward County, but it may influence future legal challenges statewide.
Anthropic sues Defense Department over supply chain risk designation
4 hours ago
- Anthropic filed a complaint against the Department of Defense (DOD) over being labeled a supply chain risk.
- The conflict arose from disagreements on military access to Anthropic's AI systems, with red lines against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued for unrestricted AI access for 'any lawful purpose.'
- Anthropic called the DOD's actions 'unprecedented and unlawful,' citing constitutional protections for speech.
- The supply chain risk label typically applies to foreign adversaries and restricts Pentagon-related entities from using Anthropic's models.
Crow Watch: A Hacker News Alternative
10 hours ago
- 2ZIP Code First (zipcodefirst.com)
- 2printf.news (printf.news)
- 1Cloud VM Benchmarks 2026: Performance and Price Analysis (devblog.ecuadors.net)
- 1How to Run Qwen 3.5 Locally (unsloth.ai)
- 1Linux Ported to PS5, Enabling Steam Machine Capabilities (xcancel.com)
- 1Telemetry helps, you still get to turn it off (ritter.vg)
- 1Pushing and Pulling: Three Reactivity Algorithms (jonathan-frere.com)
- 3My Favorite 39C3 Talks (asindu.xyz)
- 2The Internals of PostgreSQL: An In-Depth Guide (interdb.jp)
- 1When you make a release that’s okay (unsung.aresluna.org)
- 1Proposal: Adding UUID Package to Go's Standard Library (github.com/golang)
- 1Some Words on WigglyPaint (beyondloom.com)
- 2Boy I was wrong about the Fediverse (matduggan.com)
- 1The Machine That Waits (designrepcom.com)
- 2Pain and Cephering (arch.dog)
- 1Partnering with Mozilla to Improve Firefox’s Security (anthropic.com)
- 1A New Chapter for the Nix Language, Courtesy of WebAssembly (determinate.systems)
- 1Observations from a decade building Distributed Systems (philipotoole.com)
- 1Distributive Conditional Types (shaky.sh)
- 3Oberon System 3 supports Multiboot and nicely runs on QEMU (github.com/rochus-keller)
- 1Build your own SQS or Kafka with Postgres (blog.sequinstream.com)
AMD Expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Family with 8 to 12 Core Parts – ServeTheHome
5 hours ago
- AMD expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 family with 8, 10, and 12-core chips.
- Target markets include automotive, industrial, robotics, healthcare, and broadcast.
- New chips feature Zen 5 CPU, RDNA 3.5 GPU, and XDNA 2 NPU architectures.
- Performance improvements include up to 2x CPU and 4x GPU performance.
- Higher-end SKUs support up to 16 GPU CUs and industrial temperature ranges (-40°C).
- Memory options include LPDDR5X-8533 (bandwidth-focused) and DDR5-5600 (ECC support).
- TDP ranges from 15W to 54W, with 28W nominal for new SKUs.
- Reference boards with DDR5 SO-DIMM slots and PCIe x4 will launch in H2 2024.
- Chips sampling now, full production starts in Q3 2024.
Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein Had a Yearslong Relationship
4 hours ago
- Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein had a yearslong relationship, with Epstein attempting to connect Thiel with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak on multiple occasions.
- Epstein facilitated meetings between Thiel and Barak, discussing topics like Israeli national security and leveraging tech for security purposes.
- Thiel's company, Palantir, has a strategic partnership with the Israel Ministry of Defense, providing AI tools used in military operations, including in Gaza.
- Epstein played a role in connecting Thiel to Israeli cybersecurity ventures, including Guardicore and Carbyne, with Thiel's Founders Fund investing in these startups.
- Barak sought Thiel's expertise in AI and warfare, proposing a seminar on the subject with top tech leaders.
- Epstein's connections helped Thiel deepen ties with Israel's tech and military sectors, contributing to Palantir's involvement in controversial military operations.
- Thiel's alignment with Israel and the far-right reflects a broader trend among Silicon Valley elites supporting militarization and anti-'wokeness'.
Anthropic investors grow frustrated with CEO after feds ban AI startup
3 hours ago
- Anthropic investors are frustrated with CEO Dario Amodei's combative stance toward the Trump administration.
- Investors fear Amodei's approach could worsen tensions and increase business risks related to the Pentagon dispute.
- Anthropic's refusal to drop AI safeguards for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance is central to the conflict.
- Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors are complying with the government's ban on Anthropic's technology.
- The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to phase out Anthropic's AI within six months.
- OpenAI is benefiting from the fallout, securing a Pentagon agreement as agencies switch to its models.
- Anthropic's political and ideological leanings, highlighted by controversial blog posts, have fueled government concerns.
- Major tech backers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft support Anthropic, but their stance on the dispute is unclear.
Algebraic topology: knots links and braids
5 hours ago
- A knot is a simple closed curve in Euclidean 3-space (E(3)), and two knots are equivalent if there's an orientation-preserving homeomorphism mapping one to the other.
- Schoenflies proved in 1908 that homeomorphisms from simple closed curves in the plane (E(2)) to the unit circle (S(1)) can be extended to the entire plane, but this doesn't hold in higher dimensions.
- Wild embeddings in E(3) exist, such as Alexander's horned sphere and Antoine's necklace, where complements are not simply connected.
- Knots are typically studied as tame embeddings, like simple closed polygonal curves, to avoid wild behavior.
- Knot diagrams are projections into E(2) with over/under-crossing indications, sufficient to reconstruct the knot up to equivalence.
- Reidemeister moves define equivalence between knot diagrams: two diagrams represent the same knot if one can be transformed into the other via these moves.
- The unknot is the unique knot with a diagram without crossings.
- Knot composition involves tying two oriented knots sequentially, with the unknot acting as a zero element.
- A knot is prime if it cannot be expressed as a sum of two non-trivial knots, and every knot has a unique prime factorization.
- Seifert surfaces are used to define the genus of a knot, which is additive under composition and zero only for the unknot.
- Alternating knots have diagrams where overcrossings and undercrossings alternate, and most prime knots with ≤8 crossings are alternating.
- Knot invariants, like the fundamental group of the complement or the Jones polynomial, help distinguish inequivalent knots.
- Links are disjoint unions of knots, and trivial links have free fundamental groups for their complements.
- Braids are collections of arcs in E(3), and the braid group B(n) is generated by elementary braids with specific relations.
- Alexander's theorem states that every link is equivalent to one obtained from a braid by identifying its endpoints.

Hasty Briefsbeta

Trump Is Backing a Stock-Trading Ban That Doesn't Ban Trading Stocks

Announcing DuckDB 1.5.0

Using moon dirt to build future lunar colonies

Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe

Anthropic sues US defense department over blacklisting

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Florida Judge Rules Red Light Camera Tickets Are Unconstitutional

Anthropic sues Defense Department over supply chain risk designation

Crow Watch: A Hacker News Alternative

AMD Expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Family with 8 to 12 Core Parts – ServeTheHome

Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein Had a Yearslong Relationship

Anthropic investors grow frustrated with CEO after feds ban AI startup

Algebraic topology: knots links and braids

Trump Is Backing a Stock-Trading Ban That Doesn't Ban Trading Stocks

Announcing DuckDB 1.5.0

Using moon dirt to build future lunar colonies

Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe

Anthropic sues US defense department over blacklisting

The Arrogance of Ignorance. – By James Fallows

A modder runs GTA V in Linux on PS5

Promptfoo Is Joining OpenAI

Show HN: Zenòdot – Find if a book has been translated into your language

The optimal age to freeze eggs is 19

JSLinux Now Supports x86_64

DARPA's new X-76 Experimental Plane

Building a Procedural Hex Map with Wave Function Collapse

Florida Judge Rules Red Light Camera Tickets Are Unconstitutional

Anthropic sues Defense Department over supply chain risk designation

Crow Watch: A Hacker News Alternative

AMD Expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Family with 8 to 12 Core Parts – ServeTheHome

Peter Thiel and Jeffrey Epstein Had a Yearslong Relationship

Anthropic investors grow frustrated with CEO after feds ban AI startup

Algebraic topology: knots links and braids