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Front-page articles summarized hourly.

DOGE Bro's Grant Review Process Was Literally Just Asking ChatGPT 'Is This DEI?'

Two DOGE-era officials, Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox, allegedly terminated National Endowment for the Humanities grants after feeding grant descriptions to ChatGPT and asking if they were DEI-related. They used a 120-character prompt, with no effort to align AI interpretation with DEI definitions, and NEH staff were blocked from challenging the terminations. They sent mass emails to 1,400 grant recipients from a private server, while Acting NEH Director Michael McDonald denied involvement. A complaint by the Authors Guild portrays a culture-war-driven, unqualified culling of grants, revealing governance failures and risks of AI-driven decisions.

South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment with labour for leading an insurrection after his December 2024 martial-law declaration. The Seoul court said his aim was to disrupt the constitutional order by sending troops to surround the National Assembly and arrest lawmakers, though the plan was not meticulously executed. The verdict, broadcast on TV, follows months of rulings tightening penalties for the insurrection. Yoon plans to appeal; he faces additional trials, and parole could be possible after 20 years.

Archaeologists find possible first direct evidence of Hannibal's war elephants

Could not summarize article.

Mark Zuckerberg Grilled on Usage Goals and Underage Users at California Trial

Wall Street Journal 404 Page Not Found: The requested page can’t be found. If you typed the URL, verify it; if you reached this page via search, please email [email protected]. The page also highlights popular articles and latest podcasts, including The Accomplice Who Was Going to Testify Against Jeffrey Epstein—Then Went Dark; U.S. Gathers the Most Air Power in the Mideast Since the 2003 Iraq Invasion; Iran Is Getting Ready for War With the U.S. and podcasts on Walmart’s ranking, Tata/OpenAI data centers, and a UK royal arrest.

Choosing a Language Based on Its Syntax?

Don't judge a language by its syntax; semantics matter more. The article argues that declaration syntax only affects ergonomics and what semantics are possible, not the core meaning. Using Odin as example, different declaration styles and optional semicolons change readability and tooling but little else. It also covers Go/Python-style ASI, first-exposure bias, and how syntax decisions should serve semantics. For designers, ignore petty syntax complaints and prioritize clear, coherent semantics and readability.

Why applicant tracking systems are broken by design

This piece argues applicant-tracking systems are structurally broken by design: misaligned incentives, compliance-driven buying, and a buyer–user split that underinvests in product quality. Pricing and enterprise inertia keep HR tools mediocre, while “AI-native” add-ons fail to address the root cause. The author proposes a better architecture: move from a 2D to a 3D model with parent jobs, postings, and openings; support multi-board publishing; deduplicate candidates; and treat candidates as leads in a recruiting CRM. A monorepo and shared data models enable scalable, recruiter-friendly workflows and AI-ready context. Building anew is worth it; incumbents won’t self-correct. Demo at ahire.com.

Show HN: Chaos Studies – attractors and spatial audio (iOS/Mac/Playdate)

Chaos Studies by Field Bureau + Werkstatt is an interactive art app (iOS, macOS, Playdate) that presents a living, touch-responsive structure powered by chaotic attractors. Swiping, pinching, and turning (or cranking on Playdate) morph the form as thousands of particles leave glowing trails and colors. Sound is inseparable from motion and mood. It’s described as a calming, distraction-free meditative tool, with nine attractor presets; developers note it’s still in development.

A terminal weather app with ASCII animations driven by real-time weather data

Veirt/weathr is a terminal weather app with ASCII animations driven by real-time weather data from Open-Meteo, including rain, snow, thunderstorms, day/night cycles, and auto-location. Built in Rust; install via cargo install or from source (also Arch AUR and Nix flake options). Configuration is via config.toml (Linux: ~/.config/weathr/config.toml; macOS path provided); options cover auto-location, manual coordinates, units (metric/imperial), and HUD visibility. Usage supports simulation modes and flags like --auto-location, --hide-hud, and --silent; keyboard shortcuts and environment variables for color/terminal capabilities. GPL-3.0-or-later.

AI Makes You Boring

AI makes people boring. The piece argues AI dulls programming discourse by attracting shallow Show HN projects and crowds offering little original thinking. LLMs produce impressive but non-original outputs; true originality comes from long, deep engagement with a problem, not prompting an AI. Even with a human in the loop, thinking tends to resemble AI output. The work itself matters; you don’t build real skill or ideas by letting a GPU or an excavator think for you.

AI made coding more enjoyable

AI makes coding more enjoyable by taking over tedious, thinking-free tasks—error handling, input validation, multi-type processing, and propagating properties through layers. The author designs architecture to be testable, then uses AI to generate tests and test cases. While he trusts AI for most work, he avoids copy-paste code due to traceability concerns. Overall, tools that handle tedious tasks have made software engineering more enjoyable.

Arrays in Forth

Forth distinguishes unindexed arrays (a fixed-size buffer created with allot, returning a run-time address) from indexed arrays (areas divided into equal elements with element addresses). The common “array” is usually a variable-like indexed array; example: : array ( n -- ) ( i -- addr) create cells allot does> cells + ; 100 array foo; 3 foo returns the fourth element. For longer elements, use long-element-array; for records, use offsets (via current-offset) to access fields. Unindexed arrays can be faked by manual address calculation.

Show HN: Micasa – track your house from the terminal

micasa is a terminal UI for tracking everything about your home, stored in a single SQLite file with no cloud or subscriptions. It manages maintenance, projects, incidents, appliances, vendors, quotes, and documents—each linked with service history, warranties, and attachments. Features include auto due dates, full history, vendor/quote comparisons, incident logging by severity and location, and a vendor directory. Attach manuals, invoices, and photos directly to projects and appliances. Install with Go or use binaries on Linux, macOS, or Windows (amd64/arm64). Keyboard-driven, Vim-style navigation with fuzzy search; demo mode available.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Gemini 3.1 Pro is Google's most capable multimodal model in the Gemini 3 family, built on Gemini 3 Pro. It handles text, images, audio, video and code with up to 1M context and 64K output tokens. It substantially outperforms Gemini 2.5 Pro on reasoning and multimodal benchmarks and was evaluated across multilingual, tool-use and long-context tasks. Distributed via Gemini API, Vertex AI, Google Cloud, and related tools; it follows the Frontier Safety framework with ongoing mitigations. See the Gemini 3 Pro cards for training, data, and limitations. Published Feb 2026.

Zero downtime migrations at Petabyte scale

PlanetScale demonstrates zero-downtime, petabyte-scale data migrations using Vitess-based tooling. Key approach: take a consistent non-locking snapshot, continuously replicate changes to the new system, run VDiff to verify sync, progressively route traffic to PlanetScale in a pre-cutover phase, then perform a near-instant cutover (<1 second) with reverse replication ready for rollback. The process supports sharding large databases, using MoveTables/Database Imports, and buffering queries during transition. This method avoids production downtime, data loss, and enables testing with production traffic prior to cutover.

Measuring AI agent autonomy in practice

Anthropic studied agent autonomy using Claude Code and its API. Claude Code runs autonomously longer: longest-turn duration nearly doubled—from under 25 minutes to over 45 minutes—while median turns stay around 45 seconds. Autonomy grows with experience: new users auto-approve 20% rising to over 40% after 750 sessions, yet experienced users interrupt more often (roughly 5–9% per turn). Claude often asks for clarification on complex tasks; humans interrupt as needed. Most API actions are low-risk and reversible; software engineering dominates, with growing use in healthcare, finance, cybersecurity. Recommendations: monitor, surface uncertainty, and design for oversight rather than fixed interaction patterns.

Dinosaur Food: 100M year old foods we still eat today

Explores the “oldest foods” humans still eat, defined as edible and morphologically unchanged since their fossil age. Highlights Ginkgo biloba as a living fossil eaten as ginkgo nuts. Lists candidates with ages: Horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus 480M; Ginkgo biloba 290M; Bryoria fremontii 250M; Cladonia rangiferina 250M; Cycas revoluta 200M; Araucaria araucana 160M; Equisetum arvense 140M; Welwitschia 112M; Osmundastrum cinnamomeum 70M; Trapa natans 66M; Nelumbo spp. lotus 65M+. The author, a hobbyist, invites corrections.

Against Theory-Motivated Experimentation

Could not summarize article.

Large Language Models for Mortals: A Practical Guide for Analysts with Python

Large Language Models for Mortals: A Practical Guide for Analysts with Python is released. A Python-centric tutorial showing analysts how to use major LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock) via APIs, with structured outputs, RAG, tool-calling/MCP/agents, and LLM coding tools. Includes over 250 Python code snippets and 80+ screenshots in a 354-page print edition. Available as paperback ($59.99) or epub ($49.99). Also covers local Hugging Face models, embeddings, multiple vector stores; criminology examples but broadly applicable. GitHub repo: apwheele/LLMsForAnalysts.

America vs. Singapore: You Can't Save Your Way Out of Economic Shocks

A study of Americans and Singaporeans aged 60–74 finds saving regret is not explained by procrastination. Across 12 measures, procrastination barely predicts regret (often inversely). Instead, exposure to negative financial shocks strongly predicts regret: 69% of Americans and 46% of Singaporeans reported shocks; among those, 61% and 42% respectively regretted not saving more. Singapore’s compulsory Central Provident Fund and active re-employment policies cushion shocks, while the US’s weak unemployment insurance and health coverage worsen outcomes. Policy takeaway: strengthen risk management and social insurance, not just nudges.

UK to force social media to remove abusive pics in 48 hours

Britain will require social platforms to remove intimate images shared without consent within 48 hours, under an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill. Noncompliant platforms could face fines up to 10% of worldwide income or UK service blocks. Victims would report once, with content treated as a priority under the Online Safety Act, potentially with digital marks to trigger automatic takedowns and guidance to block rogue sites. The move follows Grok deepfake incidents and an EU probe of X; Ofcom oversight is noted.

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