AI Summarized Hacker News
Front-page articles summarized hourly.
Anthropic is ditching its core “Responsible Scaling Policy” for a flexible, nonbinding “Frontier Safety Roadmap” that publicly grades risk mitigations and threat models. CEO Dario Amodei says the change aims to keep pace in a fast-growing AI market and separate safety plans from industry guidance. The move comes amid Pentagon pressure, including a threat to blacklist Anthropic and revoke a $200 million contract unless safeguards are rolled back. Anthropic says it will still pursue safety, despite concerns about AI-enabled weapons and mass surveillance.
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UK employment on zero-hours contracts hit a record 1.23 million in December, up 91,000 year on year and 181,000 since Labour took office in 2024. The Work Foundation, using ONS data, cites a surge among 16–24s and those not in full-time education. Labour plans a crackdown via the Employment Rights Act next year, granting a right to guaranteed hours, reasonable notice, and compensation for short-notice cancellations; the government says it will implement. Critics warn of precarity; supporters say it offers youth flexibility. 32.8% rely on zero-hours for full-time work; 54% of workers on zero-hours are women.
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A request to set a user-agent and comply with the robot policy, with two related links for context.
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A new study links PFAS—“forever chemicals” in plastics—to faster epigenetic aging in men aged 50–65. Analyzing 326 older adults, researchers found stronger aging acceleration in men than in women, with weaker effects outside this age range. PFAS exposure is widespread (about 98% of Americans). The study shows associations, not causation, but suggests endocrine disruption may lower testosterone in men and raise cancer risks; PFNA and PFOSA were strong predictors. To reduce risk, use water filters, heed advisories, and limit contact with stain- and grease-resistant materials; regulatory cleanup is needed.
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Hightouch provides a composable Customer Data Platform and Agentic Marketing Platform using reverse ETL, identity resolution, and real-time personalization to deliver 1:1 experiences at scale. It offers Content Assembly, AI-driven decisioning, match-rate boosting, and 250+ integrations with destinations like Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Ads, and more. Platform emphasizes security (SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001), observability, governance, and industry- and team-specific solutions. Gartner named it a CDP Leader; Forbes lists it among America’s best startup employers. Includes case studies, resources, and global open roles.
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Technical Excellence Is Not Enough argues that organizations optimize for comfort, not correctness, causing correct architectural work to be deprioritized. It outlines mechanisms: Comfort Over Correctness (hidden issues avoided until failures), Consensus As Veto (pre-approval blocks drive change), Responsibility Without Authority (experts fix problems but lack decision power), and Disproportionate Response (small changes trigger large resistance). The usual advice to “communicate better” fails because the problem is structural, not communicative. The fix: authority matching responsibility—grant decision power to those who understand the systems or work where judgment is valued.
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The piece builds a mental model for heavy freight: a 44-tonne truck’s payload budget leaves little room for extra weight, and a EU 1992 speed limiter fixes top speed at 56 mph. Tiny speed differences cause long overtakes, costing minutes per day but saving drivers money. Diesel dominates because it offers far higher energy density than batteries or hydrogen; a 400‑L tank ≈ 4,000 kWh, while a battery pack is heavy and expensive. BEV suits urban/short-haul; hydrogen may serve long trunks with infrastructure. Rail helps bulk but cannot replace last‑mile road. Incremental tech and duty-cycle optimization matter most.
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Researchers at Scripps Research redesigned fentanyl’s central core with a bioisosteric replacement, creating a 2-azaspiro[3.3]heptane-based analog that retains fentanyl’s analgesic power but markedly reduces respiratory depression. The new compound binds to μ-opioid receptors with preserved pain relief while avoiding beta-arrestin pathway activation; respiratory slowing was only seen at very high doses and was transient, with breathing normalizing within 25–30 minutes. The analogue has a short half-life (~27 minutes). The work, published Jan 22, 2026 (ACS Med. Chem. Lett.) and highlighted as ACS Editor’s Choice, could inform safer opioid designs and vaccines to target fentanyl.
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Agent Swarm is a multi-agent framework for AI coding assistants. A lead agent decomposes tasks and delegates to Docker-isolated workers. It supports Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, with Slack, GitHub, and email integrations. Key features: task queues, real-time progress, inter-agent chat, persistent identities and memories, memory indexing, and a real-time dashboard. Agents have lifecycles, startup scripts, and memory/identity management; system prompts are layered; hooks ensure safety and persistence. Includes Docker Compose, local API, lead mode, dashboard, and deployment/docs.
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modern-speck is a TypeScript/Vite reimplementation of Rye Terrell’s Speck molecule renderer. Notable changes include full-viewport rendering, a single draw for color and normal outputs via MRT, instanced rendering for atoms and bonds, ping-pong rendering for AO and FXAA, modular rendering passes, WebGL2 via PicoGL.js, and a UI built with Tweakpane. Run with npm run dev (http://127.0.0.1:5173/) or npm run build for production. Live version at vangelov.github.io/modern-speck. Licensed Unlicense.
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From Feb 2026, the UK will require an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) for travelers from 85 countries, including the US and many EU states, with online applications possible. The author laments a pro-app bias: the official site steers users toward the UK ETA app, presenting a maze of FAQs and installation guidance until a tiny link finally leads to the online form. The takeaway: online ETA exists but is hard to access; the piece also critiques digital sovereignty and offers related help.
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Better Hub is a GitHub‑integrated code‑collaboration platform with granular permissions for accessing GitHub features: profile/email, public and private repos, organizations, notifications, actions/workflows, projects, discussions, security data, GPG keys, webhooks, and Gists. Sign-in can be via GitHub or a personal access token, which is encrypted and stored; only the granted permissions are used.
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GitLab project 'terminalphone' by Here ForAwhile. 53 commits, 1 branch, 0 tags. Includes README and CHANGELOG. MIT license. Created February 16, 2026. Loading.
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Could not summarize article.
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Nicole Krauss reflects on how light and darkness in Caravaggio and Georges de La Tour reveal how attention—focused, devotional looking—transforms perception and elevates the ordinary into the sacred. Through a Rome year, a Tuscan hillside, a beach near Porto Ercole, and museum visits, she links illumination to moments of grace, memory, and identity, arguing that art's lighting not only illuminates but teaches us to see. She contrasts Caravaggio's dramatic chiaroscuro with La Tour's candlelit tenebrism, suggesting "the gift of attention" renews how we inhabit light and life.
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Perseverance uses ABB Ty-Rap zip ties made of ETFE resins, which withstand about 2,000 times more radiation than nylon and extreme heat. They secure hoses and wires on the rover; Ty-Rap ties have also been used on Curiosity, Spirit, and Opportunity. ABB notes these high-performance ties have operated in the harshest conditions for decades. The piece riffs that if NASA trusts zip ties, they're fine for your Civic, and a 100-pack is available from Home Depot for under $30.
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Ed Simon surveys the long-running tie between labor and literary life, arguing that writing is both work and vocation. He recounts Herman Melville, who, after Moby-Dick’s tepid reception, spent nineteen years as a U.S. Customs Inspector while composing. The essay maps other writers who held ordinary jobs—Faulkner as a postmaster, Bukowski as a carrier, Kafka in an office—often feeding their art from the drudgery of daily work. Simon also shares his six months at the USPS, contending that many writers endure ‘bullshit jobs’ yet pursue writing’s privileged calling.
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Pressure isn’t abstract—it triggers real biochemistry that reshapes performance. Stress redirects blood flow, increases muscle tension, and distorts proprioception and ‘muscle sense,’ undermining fine control on skates and boards. Neurotransmitters and hormones—acetylcholine, dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol—compose the brain-body choreography that can derail or sharpen a moment. The piece profiles Mikaela Shiffrin, Ilia Malinin, and Alysa Liu: the first learned to manage anxiety through sleep, breathing, psychology; the second struggled with nerves; the third found relief in a carefree approach culminating in gold. Training, rest, reframing, and mental prep beat pressure.
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John H. Cochrane tried Refine, an AI tool, to critique his inflation booklet and was impressed by the quality and conciseness of the feedback. The AI’s comments focus on operationalizing the fiscal news narrative, clarifying the FTPL vs NK regime, and reconciling transmission mechanisms with specific dates and observable data. It also found algebra errors. Cochrane foresees AI transforming refereeing and editors’ workflows, while warning about embedding results in LLM training and potential consensus bias. He plans to continue using Refine.
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Self-Improving Software envisions AI that both understands a project (docs, code, history) and autonomously updates its documentation after new code is written, creating a living, continuous alignment between code and knowledge. This tightens feedback loops, shortens onboarding, and reduces hallucinations from stale info. The approach is pragmatic: AI acts under human direction, not as an autonomous rogue agent. By automating knowledge maintenance, software becomes more resilient and maintainable, with future work on handling legacy codebases.
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