MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by mallowdram | 2025-10-13 14:50:43+00:00
We're inside the first animal created mass desertification project. Reforestation is nonsense.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SG8IGOzeF49Pbf8JZ-JWyzPq...

We lose 10 million sq miles of forests a year and have lost 1/3 of forest areas since 1000Ad, so "reforesting" isn't a viable reversal project.

And reforestation is poorly understood as "reforesting" is pursued on land already lost to forest capability.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59799-8

"Reforestation is a prominent climate change mitigation strategy, but available global maps of reforestation potential are widely criticized and highly variable, which limits their ability to provide robust estimates of both the locations and total area of opportunity"
by NiloCK | 2025-10-13 14:50:51+00:00
This is a fair point, but I'll emphasize that this is developer documentation and there isn't really an existing product or service targeting consumers, teachers or institutions.

My focus on that front is the LettersPractice app. I taught my own kids (6, 4) to read using early versions of the same software, and I'm pretty confident about the efficacy of the approach.

As far as the broader project moving toward being a consumer facing applications, there are a few options.

The existing platform-ui is a skeleton / concept sketch of one category. A web platform that allows users to create and subscribe to different courses, and then study sessions aggregate content from all subscribed courses. reddit for knowing stuff and having skills, rather than .

Another broad category is in NoCode ITSaaS (interactive tutoring system as a service?) platform. EG, a specialized bolt.new for EdTech that uses agentic workflows to create courses that cover a given domain or specific input documents (eg, textbooks, curriculum documents).
by frenchman_in_ny | 2025-10-13 14:51:04+00:00
There's a very specific reason (or quirk) as to why Texas leads the nation in renewable energy -- ERCOT. Basically, 90% of Texas' electric load is serviced by in-state assets, and they have very few interconnections to the rest of the grid. The electricity dispatch curve is priced on the margin, on the cost to operate the last-fired generator (natural gas), and ERCOT has moved to grow solar as a way to reduce prices.[0]

ERCOT has also had a number of spectacular -- and costly -- failures.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Reliability_Council_o...
by warthog | 2025-10-13 14:51:10+00:00
Paul Graham also has a good way to frame this which perhaps I should have touched upon.

"A principle for taking advantage of thresholds has to include a test to ensure the game is worth playing. Here's one that does: if you come across something that's mediocre yet still popular, it could be a good idea to replace it. For example, if a company makes a product that people dislike yet still buy, then presumably they'd buy a better alternative if you made one."
by pooyamo | 2025-10-13 14:51:15+00:00
Thanks! Fixed that example. (In fish shell that I use, it didn't need those quotes that's why I didn't catch it)

>there are still missing expressions, such as "add up", "a couple", etc.

Googling "pronounce add up" does not show the google short answer box for me. Aside from that, the heuristic method I used may miss some words since it's not quite clear to me how the naming scheme works in that static stash. The 2024 stash is more straightforward but as I mentioned in readme, it sounds synthetic to me.
by _flux | 2025-10-13 14:51:15+00:00
Are there modern cheap IMUs that are able to hold position for some time available?

My understanding is that using plain accelerometers and gyros will drift quite soon due to noise, while some cars (e.g. Tesla) maintain their position quite well when doing to an underground parking structure and then coming back. So I actually do believe that they put a lot of weight to tracking wheels, which I believe would not accumulate that much error. (For more precise location they'd still need to use accelerometers to detect downhill/uphill, though.)

So I believe that the precision actually favors wheels, not IMUs.

In the underground parking case it doesn't actually matter too much if there's a certain % offset, because you're very likely driving a near-closed loop of some sort; and as you say, the wheel size ratio can be calibrated upon good GNSS data.
by throwup238 | 2025-10-13 14:51:29+00:00
> Considering how much graphite pencils are used across the world, we would've seen hypothetical negative effects already with a high degree of confidence.

Graphitosis is the graphite equivalent of silicosis and asbestosis so yes we’ve got plenty of evidence it’s harmful, but it’s mostly a problem with occupational exposure where large amounts of graphite dust are produced.

That might change if there’s tiny sheets of graphene flaking off everywhere from nanocoatings and it turns out to be carcinogenic for the same reason asbestos is (which isn’t out of the question given the studies on CNTs and nanotoxicity in general).
by kccqzy | 2025-10-13 14:51:37+00:00
Why would every UDP packet involve one syscall when you can use sendmmsg(2) instead of sendmsg(2)? And similarly recvmmsg(2) instead of recvmsg(2).

EDIT: I found https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45387462 which is a way better discussion than what I wrote.
by Havoc | 2025-10-13 14:51:55+00:00
>you'd need tens of thousands of them per city

I was thinking more find a tall building and throw a single one there. Or maybe tallest 3.

As I understand it even a small number of extra satellites with line of sight can improve results a fair bit.

So aiming at low hanging fruit rather than blanket city

>very accurate atomic clock.

Indeed, but I'd think managing that on ground is easier than in space.
by mapt | 2025-10-13 14:52:55+00:00
A common banchan plate might be an ounce of pickled vegetable with 10 calories. Next to a plate with an ounce of a different pickled vegetable sprinkled with sesame seeds with 12 calories. Next to a plate with an egg on it with 60 calories.

Every table, a buffet of tiny servings surrounding a large rice bowl.

30+ dishes isn't uncommon to serve to a group. The structure is less a statement about food abundance (which is definitely what the article is claiming) and more about the variety historically available to the class which can afford to eat in sit-down restaurants or be fed by courtly chefs.

The traditional Chinese sit-down restaurant experience (to grossly generalize) isn't that different; There might be as many entrees as there are people, using large serving bowls, but each person is by default expected to take a fraction of each entree.
by AnimalMuppet | 2025-10-13 14:53:08+00:00
> Downvoting only proves the point

You keep telling yourself that, if it makes you feel any better.

In real life, it may mean that people feel that, though you state your points as though they are obviously true, you have given no reason for us to actually agree with your dogmatic assertions. That doesn't prove that economics is a primate bias; it proves that you are not doing well at persuading people.
by shermantanktop | 2025-10-13 14:53:50+00:00
Most “homelabs” are built by a developer LARPing as a sysadmin, with a user population of one (themselves) or zero for most of the features.

It’s the SUV that has off-road tires but never leaves the pavement, the beginner guitarist with an arena-ready amp, the occasional cook with a $5k knife. No judgment, everyone should do what they want, but the discussions get very serious even though the stakes are low.
by kwillets | 2025-10-13 14:53:56+00:00
This article seems somewhat fanciful. Medieval Koreans ate two meals a day, and famines were common. Only a small area of the country is suitable for rice cultivation. The photos seem to show only upper-class clothing and furniture.

I've been to that makgeolli place in Jeonju, and it sells drinks and food as a set; there is no free food.
by citizenpaul | 2025-10-13 14:54:04+00:00
The whole point of ethics is to have an independent roadmap of what is right/good/moral other than just your subjective feelings that may change even from day to day.

Again you are reinforcing my point. I've directly meet people that have said things like this real life Exec quote.

"I love bopping them, just like turtles when they pop their head up for air, bop" *gestured fist hammer motion

In regard to treating people like disposable slaves in order to get what they want.
by palmotea | 2025-10-13 14:54:21+00:00
> Germany desperately needs a wake-up call in the form of recession. German car industry has been non-competitive for multiple years now. Instead of letting it fail, the government kept on flushing money down the toilet and prolonging the inevitable.

Just let it fail? I'm reminded of this, which I read recently about rare earths:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/business/china-rare-earth...:

> Rare earth refineries and magnet factories all over the world have been buying Chinese equipment for the past 20 years. Many equipment vendors in North America and Europe closed when most of the world’s rare earth mining shifted to China in the late 1990s.

I'm sure that, at the time, people were saying that North American and European rare earth equipment manufacturers were "non-competitive for multiple years now."
by sneela | 2025-10-13 14:54:43+00:00
I agree with other comments that this research treads a fine, unethical line. Did the authors responsibly disclose this, as is often done in the security research community? I cannot find any mention of it in the paper. The researchers seem to be involved in security-related research (first author is doing a PhD, last author holds a PhD).

At least arxiv could have run the cleaner [1] before the print of this pre-print (lol). If there was no disclosure, then I think this pre-print becomes unethical to put up.

> leading to the identification of nearly 1,200 images containing sensitive metadata. The types of data represented vary significantly. While device information (e.g., the camera used) or software details (such as the exact version of Photoshop) may already raise concerns, in over 600 cases the metadata contained GPS coordinates, potentially revealing the precise location where a photo was taken. In some instances, this could expose a researcher’s home address (when tied to a profile picture) or the location of research facilities (when images capture experimental equipment)

Oof, that's not too great.

[1] https://github.com/google-research/arxiv-latex-cleaner
by jhickok | 2025-10-13 14:54:57+00:00
Right, and I seem to remember this sort of point in Wittgenstein as well in his rule-following argument where, to make an adjustment to his question, what would it mean for a computer to be miscomputing other than bucking our expectations for what a system should produce; all computers clearly are performing exactly as our physics describe them, even if they produce 2 * 2 = 5 on a screen.
by lo_zamoyski | 2025-10-13 14:55:12+00:00
Instead of naming something concrete, it makes more sense to define what the only legitimate basis for morality and the human good is, which is human nature. If you deny that, then there is indeed no possible objective basis for the good. You could not differentiate between any two human action. Decisions would be entirely arbitrary. It would make no difference what you did, except factually in the sense that you did one thing and not another.

If you observe any animal or living thing, you will generally see it behaving in ways that seek to actualize it as the kind of thing it is. The nature of a thing bounds the potentials it has, and so circumscribes the limits of what can be actualized; this is a basic feature of all things, living or not, that they are "causally composed", as it were. In any case, this activity is not necessarily conscious. No squirrel is thinking "Gee, I need to collect nuts to grow and nourish my body and avoid predators so that I can produce offspring and actualize X, Y, and Z." In such cases, the squirrel is moved by various inclinations and appetites whose proper satisfaction actualizes certain ends of "squirrelness". A good squirrel (not in the moral sense, but in the sense of it exemplifying squirrel nature) is one that is able to actualize these potentials and does so to realize its squirrel nature. A bad specimen is one that cannot or does not. So, if you get a squirrel addicted to meth, and all it does is do things that get it more hits of meth while neglecting or impeding the realization of its squirrel nature, then you have a failure or deviance opposed to the good of the squirrel. The same could be said of a squirrel that is lethargic or one that lacks limbs.

Human beings are no different in this general sense, save that human beings are able to a) comprehend their circumstances, at least somewhat, and b) choose between apprehended alternatives. This means human beings are moral agents. So, here, a human being bears a certain responsibility for his choices and actions. If he chooses to act against his nature, especially as a rational, moral, and social agent, then he is acting against his nature and thus against his good. And if he is acting in such a way while understanding that he is doing so, then he now also has moral culpability for his defective actions.

In short, to be the kind of thing you are by nature is what is good. The act in accord with your nature is what makes good actions. Death is not good per se, and to act to destroy yourself is opposed to your being human and thus to your good. To intentionally do so is morally evil. (This must distinguished from self-sacrifice for another, which can be in accord with human nature under certain circumstances, but it is not the case here with Kahneman.)
by angiolillo | 2025-10-13 14:55:27+00:00
> "Git is too hard" is never a good argument to promote the use of a different tool.

Really? Pointing out that a tool is difficult to use seems like an excellent argument to promote the use of a different (supposedly simpler) tool.

Specifically in the case of git, I'm glad it was not difficult for you, but it is undeniable that it is a very difficult tool for many people to learn.
by noelwelsh | 2025-10-13 14:55:56+00:00
Agreed. There is a background cultural assumption in the Western world that the "state of nature" [1] is one of constant suffering. What I know of anthropology suggests this is bullshit, and the truth is that there have been a huge variety of social structures in our prehistory. "The Dawn of Everything" goes into this.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_nature
by Yizahi | 2025-10-13 14:56:05+00:00
I suspect that it's people who are absolutely unable to "put themselves in other's shoes"(c) so to speak. They can't think abstract enough to imagine themselves a different person in different circumstances. So from this starting point they threat every external/outside restriction on them as an attack. They are worse off after such restriction hence it is completely bad. People who try to attack him personally (via laws, regulation, activism etc.) the most are the worst and he predicts that there will be some ultimate devil who will attack poor Thiel the most in a near future. Thus he complains about common humanity problems like climate change, because he couldn't care less about climate change, his funds allow him to never experience it until his death. While regulation coming from that topic is abhorrent, because he sees it as an attack on himself. Same with taxes, urban development, education (elite already have enough 100k/year schools no more required, helthcare and so on)

People who like his speeches or similar thoughts, think the same way. They think it's a global attack on themselves, so they tend to look out for the new leaders to defend against it.
by rkomorn | 2025-10-13 14:56:14+00:00
That's not too dissimilar from mine.

I have cash I need to invest. I'm not looking to change any of my existing investments, so it's more a question of what the right move is there, with the wrinkle that I now live in the EU (again) after spending my whole adult life in the USA.

I don't believe (or have interest) in making any short term moves. I don't think I need to (and feel very fortunate).

We have the same 20+ horizon, but I guess the crux of the issue (and the point of my initial entry into this thread) is: how different do I think the world will be in 20+ years, and even if I'm confident it'll change, do I know what it'll become to make the right moves now?

I don't think I do (and I'm somewhat skeptic anyone else really does either).
by timbit42 | 2025-10-13 14:56:32+00:00
There is no antichrist in Revelation, despite it being commonly believed. Instead, Revelation speaks of the Beast from the sea, the image of the Beast, and the Beast from the Earth (aka. the False Prophet).

The term 'antichrist' is only used in 1st and 2nd John and doesn't refer to a specific person at a particular time, but to anyone who denies Christ came in the flesh and came from God. 2nd John says there are many deceivers who deny Christ came in the flesh and are antichrist.

Based on word usage, grammar and sentence structure, it is commonly believed that Revelation was not written by the same author as the Gospel of John or 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, so linking the antichrist of 1st and 2nd John to characters in Revelation doesn't make sense.
by nradov | 2025-10-13 14:56:42+00:00
I was responding to the claim by @codeableconcept that the absence of significant dietary fat somehow prevents obesity, independent of energy balance. That seems unlikely.

Obviously it's possible for an active man to expend ~4500 kcal/day. I've done it myself many times. Even back during the Civil War, US soldiers typically consumed more energy dense food and only got a fraction of their calories from potatoes.
by sharkweek | 2025-10-13 14:57:54+00:00
That Tin Can device has infiltrated (in a good way, what a fun idea!) my oldest kids’ social circle at elementary school. Most of his friends are requesting one for Christmas and we’re planning on getting our kid one as well.

Really hoping the idea lasts, lots of good memories of dialing friends on our landline growing up and chatting casually.

Now if only it could replicate the dread of calling a crush’s house and her dad picking up the phone…
by ActorNightly | 2025-10-13 14:58:01+00:00
No im saying that you can transport data over unix sockets, which are in memory, and python has that as part of multiprocessing.

The way python multiprocessing is set up is that it acts like a thread - when you launch a function, it copies the memory of the current process into the new one. You pay the startup overhead, so instead you launch worker processes ahead of time, and transport data to them over unix pipes. Pretty much almost as fast as threading.

>You appear to have been traumatized by Java

Not really, I just have standards. Java is just a poorly designed language with poor community support. Look at the amount of code it takes to send an HTTP request in Java, versus Python.
by eyegor | 2025-10-13 14:58:34+00:00
As nice as it looks, I have a lot of trouble believing the "we have magic money, it's free because that's good for business" logic.

PDFgear is free of charge, and we don’t generate income through any hidden means. We Do NOT misuse or sell user data and we Do Not display ads. Here’s how we keep operations running: We’ve secured investment to cover operational costs, including team expenses and technology like the ChatGPT API. We’re also experienced in optimizing technology usage to manage costs more effectively.
by jairuhme | 2025-10-13 14:58:48+00:00
Agree with your edit saying that there should be a landing message that gives a quick overview. But with in a few moments I was able to see that you can create a database and then start inserting tables/records into it. Seems like a pretty good tool to learn how to create and manage a database without the hassle of having to download sqlite and start testing commands that might be new to you in the CLI
by owlbite | 2025-10-13 14:59:32+00:00
What I suspect he really means is that FORTRAN lays out its arrays column-major, whilst C choose row-major. Historically most math software was written in the former, including the de facto standard BLAS and LAPACK APIs used for most linear algebra. Mix-and-matching memory layouts is a recipe for confusion and bugs, so "mathematicians" (which I'll read as people writing a lot of non-ML matrix-related code) tend to prefer to stick with column major.

Of course things have moved on since then and a lot of software these days is written in languages that inherited their array ordering from C, leading to much fun and confusion.

The other gotcha with a lot of these APIs is of course 0 vs 1-based array numbering.
by npalli | 2025-10-13 14:59:33+00:00
Well said, the point of doubly linked lists is not that it is the be all and end all of all data structures. You can possibly workaround that. The real issue is a real program has much more complex data structures, how can you possibly make it work or refactor easily when a simple thing like DLL's are causing so much grief. So, yeah Rust really is unproductive in a massive way. Just useful in small parts where you might really need memory safety (that too, not sure why you wouldn't chose another language).
by timschmidt | 2025-10-13 14:59:57+00:00
> its arm can only lift 2KG

That covers more than 90% of the objects in my home, and most people's.

> the problem that needs to be solved here is not just better software. Better hardware needs to come down in cost and weight

I disagree. Software seems to be the main limitation to me at the moment. Bigger motors and batteries are readily available on the market already. Software is advancing rapidly, and seems to me will quickly be up to the task (i.e. within a few years), but at the moment is still the domain of research projects.

> There is still a long way to go for a humanoid to be a reasonable product

Whether or not you think it's a reasonable product, it's clearly already an available one which is already selling in volume. As with all things, future versions will be more capable.
Show HN: I made a calculator that works over disjoint sets of intervals
by fouronnes3 | 2025-10-13 15:00:13+00:00
I've been studying interval arithmetic for the past few weeks and it's a really interesting field because while there is a ton of super interesting research published over the past decades, it has never really gotten the recognition that it deserves, IMO.

One reason for this is that standard interval arithmetic has really poor handling of division by intervals containing zero. If you compute 1 / [-1, 2] in regular interval arithmetic, you get either [-∞, +∞], or you have to say that the operation is undefined. Both solutions are virtually useless. The real answer of course is [-∞, -1] U [0.5, +∞]: i.e. a union of two disjoint intervals.

This is useful because you can confidently exclude a non empty set of the real numbers ([-1, 0.5]) from the set of possible values that you can get by dividing 1 by a number between -1 and 2.

But this definition of interval division yields a value that is not an interval. This is a problem if you want to define a closed arithmetic system, where you can build and evaluate arbitrary expression over interval values.

(This behavior extends to any non continuous function like tan() for example, which is implemented in my project - not without difficulties!)

Well the obvious solution is to define your arithmetic over disjoint unions of intervals. This is the subject of a 2017 paper called "Interval Unions" by by Schichl, H., Domes, F., Montanher, T. and Kofler, K..

This open-source project I made implements interval union arithmetic in TypeScript in the form of a simple interactive calculator, so you can try it out for yourself! The underlying TypeScript library is dependency free and implements interval union arithmetic over IEEE 754 double precision floats (JS native number type) with outward rounding. This guarantees accuracy of interval results in the presence of rounding issue inherent to floating point.