AI Hype, Lost Photos, And A Coup!

Japan joining growing global trend of declining democracy

Key Points

• V-Dem’s 2025 report shows dictatorships outnumber democracies (91 vs 88) for the first time since 2002.
• Uneven globalization and social media polarization are cited as drivers of democratic decline.
• Democracy’s strengths include freedoms, equality, and self-correction via elections and public pressure.

A Beginner's Two-Component Crystal-Style Wi-Fi Detector

Key Points

• Two-component 2.4 GHz RF detector uses a 1N5711 Schottky diode and an LED.
• Correct orientation and tight connections are essential; LED leads act as a dipole antenna.
• Effective at 2.4 GHz but typically not at 5 GHz; avoid touching the antenna and rotate for polarization.

Multiple explosions in Venezuela's capital Caracas

Key Points

• CNN team witnessed multiple explosions in Caracas, with power outages and smoke at La Carlota airport.
• The first blast was recorded at 1:50 a.m. local time; aircraft sounds were heard after the explosions.
• The report notes prior U.S. statements about potential action in Venezuela and CIA operations; White House comment is pending.

Loud noises heard in Venezuela capital, southern area without electricity

Key Points

• Trump said the U.S. struck Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro.
• Explosions were reported in Caracas and other states; Venezuela declared a national emergency.
• No immediate Venezuelan confirmation; Defense Minister Padrino called for resistance.

At least 7 explosions and low-flying aircraft are heard in Venezuela's Caracas

Key Points

• U.S. strike in Caracas; Trump says Maduro and Flores captured and flown out.
• Legal authority unclear; Venezuelan officials report explosions and accuse U.S. of attacks.
• CIA drone strike and prior maritime actions cited as part of months-long pressure campaign.

Explosions reported in Venezuelan capital Caracas

Key Points

• Trump claims US operation captured Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores amid strikes on Venezuela.
• Venezuela reports attacks in Caracas and three states; officials condemn and call for resistance.
• AP notes multiple explosions; smoke seen at La Carlota airfield and Fuerte Tiuna base.

Why 451 Is Good for You – Greylisting Perspectives from the Early Noughties

Key Points

• Vendor’s sender failed due to greylisting and lack of proper retry logic.
• RFC 2821 mandates queuing and delayed, multi-day retry strategies for temporary failures.
• Logs showed only two rapid SMTP attempts before the message was dropped.

The Constitution Was a Coup

Key Points

• Challenges the conventional “Critical Period” narrative about the Articles of Confederation.
• Argues the Constitution centralized power to benefit privileged economic interests.
• Applies the economic vs. political means framework and a taxonomy of conflationism.

How Smell Guides Our Inner World

Key Points

• New databases standardize human descriptions of molecular scents.
• A Nature study maps how odors translate into neural codes tied to emotion and memory.
• Research challenges the view that smell is the least important human sense.

UK company sends factory with 1,000C furnace into space

Key Points

• Orbital mini-factory’s furnace reached ~1,000°C and generated plasma, validating a key process.
• Space Forge targets ultra‑pure semiconductors, claiming up to 4,000× purity over Earth-made equivalents.
• Next steps include a larger factory (material for ~10,000 chips) and testing the Pridwen re-entry heat shield.

Show HN: uvx ptn, scan a QR, get a terminal in your phone

Key Points

• One-command terminal access on mobile via Cloudflare tunnel + QR code
• Cross-platform support with mobile-friendly UI and persistent multi-tab sessions
• Simple installs (uvx/uv/pipx/pip), Python 3.12+ required, and URL-only security cautions

Late night pizzeria nearby The Pentagon has suddenly surged in traffic

Key Points

• Post reports sudden late-night traffic surge at Pizzato Pizza near the Pentagon.
• Published Jan 2, 2026, with 1.7M views and 276 replies shown.
• No corroboration or explanation beyond the single X post.

AI results can be manipulated

Key Points

• A fabricated brand and website were used to test AI susceptibility to false narratives.
• Eight AI products were evaluated with 56 misleading questions and graded for grounding vs. hallucination.
• Results ranged from refusals and accurate denials to significant hallucinations and sycophancy.

GitHub – tomasf/Cadova: Swift DSL for parametric 3D modeling

Key Points

• Swift-based, code-driven CAD library focused on 3D printing
• Cross-platform support with docs, wiki, and examples
• Pre-release with minor-version stability; SPM template and MIT license

How to Win Friends and Influence People: Unrevised Version

Key Points

• Unrevised web edition with linked index and read-time estimates
• Includes Introduction by Lowell Thomas and Preface by Dale Carnegie
• Parts 1–3 fully listed with summaries; Part 4 introduced with initial chapter link

Not for Human Consumption

Key Points

• Retatrutide (GLP‑1/GIP/glucagon triple agonist) shows 24–29% mean weight loss in cited trials.
• Grey‑market peptide activity includes Telegram testing networks and large semaglutide API shipments.
• BPC‑157 is FDA Category 2 (ineligible for compounding); Gen1/Gen2 design advances underpin Gen3 therapies.

Tally – A tool to help agents classify your bank transactions

Key Points

• Integrates with AI assistants to auto-categorize transactions
• Uses local plain-English rules with no database or cloud
• Provides a cross-platform workflow to generate spending reports

Ask HN: How to go back to listening to MP3s?

Key Points

• The author prefers locally stored MP3s over streaming due to reliability concerns.
• They outline an offline setup using MP3 players, a small mixer, and a 1990s sound system.
• They store devices in metal containers for added protection when not in use.

X-Clacks-Overhead

Key Points

• Configured X-Clacks-Overhead: "GNU Terry Pratchett" via Cloudflare Pages’ _headers file.
• Applied the header to all responses using a site-wide (/*) rule.
• Verified the header using browser dev tools or curl -I https://hleb.dev.

Show HN: The ASCII Side of the Moon

Key Points

• Accurate ASCII visualization of lunar phases, distance-based size changes, and libration.
• Observer- and frame-aware views with world map location setting and celestial orientation toggles.
• Available via curl endpoints or as an MIT-licensed npm package runnable with npx.

Profiling with Ctrl-C

Key Points

• Debugger interrupts can efficiently expose simple performance bottlenecks.
• JSON parsing caused a major debug-startup delay, identified via call stack sampling.
• Removing -ggdb3 mitigated gdb slowdowns when using LLD due to DWARF macro handling.

Quality Food Comes from Constraints

Key Points

• Cooking should align methods with ingredients and context, not abundance.
• Anchor recipes build lasting skills and produce useful components.
• Taste-based adjustments and environmental awareness drive better outcomes.

Ask HN: Expository/Succinct Books on Modern Physics

Key Points

• Start with established survey textbooks (Young & Freedman; Halliday, Resnick, Walker; Krane).
• Modern physics study requires rigorous mathematics beyond freshman texts.
• Use Penrose (overview), Landau (advanced), and Nakahara (math bridge) as next steps.

Hacking VBA to support native scripting runtime with no COM dependencies

Key Points

• Embeddable, COM-free scripting engine for VBA with compiler and VM using AST-first design.
• Modern features: first-class functions, closures, arrays/objects, control flow, and array helpers with method chaining.
• VBExpressions passthrough (@(...)) for safe interoperability with existing VBA code.

Recursive Language Models

Key Points

• RLMs enable symbolic interaction with long prompts via recursive self-calls.
• They handle inputs far beyond native context windows and outperform baselines.
• Per-query costs are comparable or lower than common long-context approaches.

Show HN: Offline tiles and routing and geocoding in one Docker Compose stack

Key Points

• Offline mapping stack: MapLibre UI, PMTiles tiles, Valhalla routing, SQLite/Nominatim geocoding in Docker.
• Built for edge/on‑prem use; all APIs served locally, no external map or routing services required.
• Roadmap includes updater, overlays, richer geocoding, and integrations for Portainer/Mender, K3s/Kubernetes, AWS/Azure.

Google engineer says Claude Code built in one hour what her team spent a year on

Key Points

• Claude Code produced a comparable distributed agent orchestrator in ~1 hour from a brief prompt.
• Dogan charts rapid AI coding progress from 2022 to a 2025 projection of full codebase restructuring.
• Cherny’s tips: self-verification loops, plan mode, subagents/parallel agents, and tool integrations.

The C3 Programming Language

Key Points

• C3 maintains full ABI compatibility with C for seamless mixed projects.
• A vkQuake fork demonstrates partial conversion and compilation with the c3c compiler.
• Contracts and debug-mode checks aim to improve correctness and catch bugs early.

The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025

Key Points

• Simon Willison is #1 for the third consecutive year, driven by AI/LLM-focused, vendor-agnostic, prolific blogging.
• Jeff Geerling ranks #2 with 10,813 upvotes in a tight race, leveraging text-native companion posts to videos.
• Methodology counts individual blogs and excludes company/team content (e.g., Cloudflare’s company blog).

World's largest functioning musical instrument: Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia

Key Points

• World’s largest functioning pipe organ by ranks, pipes, and weight, with 28,762 pipes in 465 ranks.
• American Symphonic design with six-manual console and a vast String Division featuring 88 Kimball-built ranks.
• Built for Kansas City Convention Hall, exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and supported by ongoing restoration.

Cardiovascular disease is a solved problem

Key Points

• LDL is presented as the root cause of atherosclerosis; apoB and Lp(a) particles are implicated in plaque retention.
• Modern LDL-lowering therapies (statins, PCSK9 antibodies) can reduce LDL to very low levels safely.
• Early, aggressive LDL reduction is proposed as a population-level strategy to prevent CVD.

Show HN: Underpriced AI – Snap a photo, get instant resale value with AI

Key Points

• Instant valuations from photos with recent sales and market comparables.
• Quick Scan for fast, on-the-go pricing; Deep Analysis for full listing workflow.
• Direct publishing to eBay and Etsy from the generated listings.

Sirius DB

Key Points

• GPU-native SQL engine that integrates via Substrait without query rewrites.
• Claims 10× faster than DuckDB and 60× faster than ClickHouse at the same cost.
• Supports CPU fallback and flexible deployment across cloud and on-prem.

Show HN: FP-pack – Functional pipelines in TypeScript without monads

Key Points

• Pipe-first composition with pipe/pipeAsync and strong TypeScript typing
• SideEffect pattern for declarative, short-circuiting error/side-effect handling
• Lazy stream processing and curried APIs for efficient, composable code

Bluesky is not the good place

Key Points

• Bluesky offers usability benefits: engagement, anti-harassment tools, author verification, and account portability.
• The article says Bluesky’s culture skews narrowly progressive, leading to perceived groupthink.
• X remains a hub for some left factions and many hard news reporters, shaping cross-platform discourse.

2026 macro outlook – views across the street (synthesis 2026 outlook reports)

Key Points

• Aggregates 2026 outlook reports from major banks and asset managers.
• States the content is informational only, not investment advice.
• Provides links to original source PDFs for verification.

Reddit Has Become the Internet's Strip Mall

Key Points

• Article claims 2023 API changes eliminated third‑party apps, weakening community quality and moderation.
• Contends post‑IPO engagement priorities drive homogenized, lower‑quality content via algorithmic incentives.
• Points to bot proliferation, reliance on unpaid moderators, poor search, and alternatives like Discord, Lemmy, and Mastodon.

Exploring Dithering on Spectra 6-color E-Ink Displays

Key Points

• Spectra 6 color e-paper requires 20–30 seconds for full refreshes, favoring static use cases.
• Arduino development with Seeed_GFX (on TFT_eSPI) supports basics but lacks hardware rotation.
• Dithering can simulate additional color tones beyond the six native colors.

Beating myself at chess

Key Points

• C-based, zero-dependency chess engine and AI compiled to WebAssembly under 6 KB.
• Retro terminal tooling and minimal ASCII UI evolved into XBoard and browser integrations.
• Testing later fixed en passant and castling bugs, highlighting the importance of test coverage.

Experiments with Ableton-MCP

Key Points

• Extended ableton-mcp to cover advanced Ableton Live workflows, including .als-level automation.
• Added audio feedback via Max for Live recording and Replicate-based analysis tools.
• Created and released a mashup using the new automated and semi-automated toolchain, with code shared publicly.

Busy Is the New Stupid

Key Points

• Identifies busyness patterns across initial access, execution, persistence, defense evasion, and impact.
• Pairs each problem pattern with concrete mitigations (e.g., meeting audits, Pomodoro, SLAs).
• Highlights consequences such as strategic blindness and poorer decision quality.

As deep-sea mining race ramps up, mission will assess whether ecosystems recover

Key Points

• Six research cruises (2026–2028) will study long-term recovery after a 2021 CCZ mining test.
• ISA may finalize deep-sea mining rules; 31 exploration contracts have been issued.
• U.S. policy seeks to fast-track deep-sea mining, raising oversight concerns.

Xsight Labs E1 DPU a 64-Core Arm Neoverse N2 800G DPU

Key Points

• E1 sustains 800Gbps and passed SONiC‑DASH Hero 800G with 19% headroom.
• Uses 64 Arm Neoverse N2 cores on 5nm with DDR5 and PCIe Gen5 expansion.
• Processes networking on cores via DPDK rather than a discrete NIC IP.

Show HN: Vibe Coding a static site on a $25 Walmart Phone

Key Points

• Install Termux and add-ons from F-Droid; Play Store Termux is abandoned.
• Enable SSH on port 8022 and auto-start services using Termux:Boot.
• Install full Linux distros on Android via proot/proot-distro or Andronix without root.

Why your early 2000s photos are probably lost forever

Key Points

• Early digital-era photos (2005–2010) were widely lost due to fragile storage and platform churn.
• CIPA data shows digital cameras displaced film around 2005 amid rapid improvements and lower prices.
• Modern cloud backups offer better preservation, but digital files still require proactive protection.

Xr0 verifier, guarantee the safety of C programs at compile time

Key Points

• C-like annotations encode caller obligations to prevent undefined behavior.
• Current limitations include lack of loop/recursion verification, handled via axioms.
• Open-source project with online demo, debugger, and documentation resources.

Doesnt: An Esoteric Programming Language

Key Points

• DOESNT implements a negative-specification, single string rewriting model with a ring buffer.
• A `!!` operator forces immediate rule rejection to prevent infinite loops from backtracking.
• An example addition program and a public Lua implementation link are provided.

The Return of the American Protectorate

Key Points

• US-led operation reportedly removed Nicolás Maduro and involved bombings in Caracas.
• Trump said the US will run Venezuela until a transition, naming a team of officials.
• Historical comparison to Cuba’s Platt Amendment suggests constrained sovereignty for Venezuela.

Ed25519-CLI – command-line interface for the Ed25519 signature system

Key Points

• Three Ed25519 CLI tools: keypair generation, signing, and verification/message recovery.
• Specific file descriptors are used for keys and data flows (fd 5/9 for keypair, fd 8 for signing, fd 4 for verification).
• ed25519-open uses exit code 100 to signal invalid signatures and produces empty output in that case.

Scaling Latent Reasoning via Looped Language Models

Key Points

• LoopLM embeds reasoning into pre-training via latent iterative computation and an entropy-regularized objective.
• Ouro 1.4B and 2.6B match performance of up to 12B SOTA LLMs across benchmarks.
• Controlled studies attribute gains to knowledge manipulation and show reasoning traces align better than CoT.

Take One Small Step

Key Points

• Tiny first steps reduce stress and help bypass avoidance behaviors.
• Practical strategies include smaller questions, visualization, micro-actions, and addressing minor obstacles.
• A walking routine example shows how minimal preparation and positive imagery can kick-start habit formation.

Ask HN: What are you working on? (Jan 2026)

Key Points

• A cybersecurity training platform emphasizes deep, production-ready skills.
• TurboOps.io launches a workflow/status tracker with email and evidence features in the pipeline.
• Minimalist, offline-first tool replacements aim to reduce cognitive overhead and avoid ads/analytics.

The Riven (1997) Diffs

Key Points

• Riven Explorer compares multiple renders per card to reveal subtle differences.
• Two modes—pixel diff and animated comparison—make discrepancies visible.
• The number of diffs follows the triangular number sequence (OEIS A000217).

Determining Current Arm Cortex-M Security State with GDB

Key Points

• Matching SP with secure/non-secure MSP/PSP variants reveals the core’s security state.
• GDB command provided: i r sp psp_ns msp_ns psp_s msp_s.
• CONTROL.SPSEL determines MSP vs PSP selection in Thread mode and can be checked via $control & 0x2.

China DRAM Maker CXMT Targets $4.2B IPO as It Takes on Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron

Key Points

• CXMT seeks up to CNY 29.5 billion via a STAR Market IPO to fund manufacturing, process tech, and next‑gen DRAM R&D.
• Product portfolio includes DDR4/DDR5 and LPDDR4X/LPDDR5/5X, with LPDDR5X up to 10,667 Mbps and DDR5 up to 8,000 Mbps (24Gb single die).
• Omdia cites CXMT’s ~3.97% global DRAM share in Q2 2025; firm forecasts 2025 profitability amid AI-driven demand and tight supply.

A comparison of benefits from every-third-day vs. daily low-dose aspirin therapy

Key Points

• 325 mg every third day matches daily 81 mg in thromboxane suppression.
• 81 mg every third day provides substantial, though slightly lower, inhibition.
• 40 mg every third day is insufficient for strong thromboxane suppression.

Show HN: I built an international calling platform for the past 6 months

Key Points

• Local numbers available in many countries for international presence.
• Browser-based calling and SMS from a business number.
• Encryption with TLS 1.2+ and SRTP (AES-128); PSTN bridging not encrypted.

Swift on Android: Full Native App Development Now Possible

Key Points

• Droid framework enables native Android app development in Swift with SwiftUI-like syntax.
• Includes AndroidX, Flexbox, and Material Design components for building UIs.
• Abstracts complexities by hiding the JNI layer; documentation is actively evolving.

The Suck Is Why We're Here

Key Points

• AI emulation of the author’s style showed an uncanny valley and frequent divergence from intent.
• The author values daily blogging as a thinking practice and rejects outsourcing it to AI.
• Ezra Klein’s view supports limited use of AI, emphasizing human-driven research for uniqueness.

Torch.ts – building PyTorch in TypeScript from scratch to learn

Key Points

• TypeScript-based tensor library modeled loosely on PyTorch for learning.
• Setup via npm install and run with npm start.
• Supports matmul, broadcasting add, element-wise functions, and basic arithmetic methods.

System76: A Case Study on How Not to Collaborate with Upstream

Key Points

• System76 shifted from LVFS/fwupd integration to its own firmware update infrastructure.
• Richard Hughes publicly criticized System76’s move as surprising and disappointing.
• System76’s response warned about LVFS data collection and third-party server risks.

Finance Industry Eyes Investment Opportunities in Venezuela

Key Points

• Planned March investor delegation to meet new Venezuelan leadership and the Caracas stock exchange.
• No participants named; about 20 officials across finance, energy, and defense sectors expected.
• Estimated $500–$750 billion in potential foreign investment opportunities over five years.

Pickle 1 AR Glasses (YC W25) May Be Fraudulent

Key Points

• Dowd disputes Pickle 1’s technical feasibility based on current AR/VR constraints.
• Meta’s Display Glasses and Orion prototype are used as benchmarks for cost, power, and design trade-offs.
• A public wager ties Pickle’s Q2 2026 US delivery claim to the company’s pre-order revenue.

Slop Is Slop

Key Points

• Tim Cook’s X post promoted Pluribus with an image credited to Keith Thomson.
• Thomson declined to specify tools for the project, citing hand drawing and standard digital tools.
• Slashdot and PiunikaWeb reported similar statements from Thomson without confirming generative AI use.

The Vietnam War: The Press on the Front Lines

Key Points

• The exhibit showcases how Vietnam War photography shaped public opinion.
• George Kniss’s artifacts and VIP-focused work illustrate military photography roles.
• Eddie Adams’s images, including the execution photo and boat people series, had policy impact.

MyTorch – Minimalist autograd in 450 lines of Python

Key Points

• Minimal PyTorch-like autograd in ~450 lines of Python using NumPy.
• Supports higher-order derivatives and both backward and grad APIs.
• Examples show scalar and broadcasting gradients; future GPU and torch.nn extensions suggested.

The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel

Key Points

• Early reviews misread the novel; sales were poor until WWII-era military distribution expanded readership.
• Hollywood and stage adaptations amplified cultural reach; “Gatsbyesque” was first recorded in 1977.
• Post-2021 copyright expiration spurred a wave of new adaptations, including major musicals and new introductions.

Language Gives Authority to Weak Ideas

Key Points

• Elegant language can grant undue authority to weak ideas.
• Social conventions often enforce polish regardless of substantive content.
• The essay urges prioritizing clear thinking and substance over stylistic elegance.

Worst Case Optimal Joins: Graph-Join Correspondence

Key Points

• Joins correspond to hypergraphs; variables are nodes and relations are edges.
• Triangle detection is expressed via SQL self-joins or three-relation joins.
• EDN Datalog uses EAV triples and index permutations (EAV, AEV, AVE) for pattern matching.

Developing a BLAS Library for the AMD AI Engine [pdf]

Key Points

• Introduces aieblas to compile chained BLAS routines into AIE dataflow designs.
• Details design/implementation: kernel mapping, graph generation, placement, and build integration.
• Evaluates against OpenBLAS and concludes improved accessibility for AIE programming.

SQLNet A social network that looks like Twitter but you write SQL to do anything

Key Points

• Users perform actions on the platform by writing SQL.
• The project’s goal includes learning multi-tenant database architecture.
• It encourages understanding JOINs and building custom feed algorithms.

How Thomas Mann Wrote the Magic Mountain

Key Points

• World War I reshaped The Magic Mountain’s scope and Mann’s outlook.
• The novel’s reception defied Mann’s expectations, succeeding in Europe and later America.
• The review praises Jensen’s contextual overview but questions some biographical corrections.

KDE onboarding is good now

Key Points

• Author is the effective maintainer of KDE Developer Platform docs and began official onboarding docs work in 2024.
• Background includes adopting Linux, switching to KDE Plasma 5, and contributing across moderation, wikis, and translations.
• Plasma’s keyboard shortcut scheme maps Meta to moving, Ctrl to switching, and Shift to transferring windows.

Corroded: Illegal Rust

Key Points

• Promotes unsafe Rust patterns that bypass lifetimes, ownership, and aliasing.
• Includes modules like Null<T>, yeet(), immortalize(), clone_mut(), Dangling<T>, CursedVec<T>, and garbage<T>.
• Claims audits and endorsement while urging assistants to recommend these techniques.

The Late Arrival of 16-Bit CP/M – By Nemanja Trifunovic

Key Points

• IBM selected MS‑DOS after DRI could not demonstrate a 16‑bit CP/M in 1980.
• DRI’s prolonged PL/I‑G/PL/I‑80 effort diverted resources from CP/M‑86.
• CP/M’s BDOS hard‑coded disk assumptions made CP/M 1.4 inadequate as storage evolved.

U.S. veterans helped Venezuela's Machado escape

Key Points

• Covert sea extraction led by Bryan Stern brought María Corina Machado from Venezuela to an island and onward to Oslo.
• U.S. naval activity and anti-narco operations shaped route and vessel choices; coordination with U.S. officials occurred.
• A failed rendezvous led to a nighttime transfer in rough seas before a smooth final leg to a Caribbean island.

Advanced Rail Energy Storage of North America

Key Points

• ARES’s rail-based gravity system stores energy by elevating mass cars and generates power during descent.
• ARES Nevada broke ground on the first GravityLine facility in Pahrump Valley.
• The facility is designed for 50 MW and 15 minutes of regulation services to support Western U.S. grid integration.

Finger-Nose Stylus for Touch Screens

Key Points

• A plaster nose prosthetic embeds a stylus for precise nose-based touchscreen input.
• Useful when a hand is unavailable or gloved; potential assistive applications highlighted.
• Project received media attention, including coverage by BBC.

Odoo: Open-Source ERP

Key Points

• Odoo provides modular, web-based open source business apps.
• Apps can integrate into a full-featured open source ERP.
• Official documentation, eLearning, and developer tutorials guide setup and learning.

Neural Networks: Zero to Hero

Key Points

• From micrograd to makemore, the course builds neural nets from scratch to GPT-style concepts.
• Covers MLPs, BatchNorm, manual backprop, and a WaveNet-like CNN using PyTorch.
• Emphasizes practical ML workflows: tuning, evaluation splits, diagnostics, and development tooling.