Missing link between Alzheimer’s and vascular disease found?
A gene called FMNL2 may explain why people with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Every blog post that took off on Hacker News, ranked by the votes of its best submission. 1,047 posts.
A gene called FMNL2 may explain why people with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has an infinite number of scenarios, but scores of war games point to two likely paths.
Why are Haiti and the DR so different?
This week, MPs have returned to Parliament from their summer recess. As they walk through its corridors, drink in its subsidised bars, and plot in its tea-rooms, I wonder how many MPs stop to ask: …
In which we talk about the big shifts in crypto.
It is striking that this part of Japan houses two sets of structures, both of nearly equal age, and both made of largely ephemeral materials that have lasted over 14 centuries through totally different mechanisms and religions.
Wonderful news! We just received full funding for the Galileo Project expedition to scoop the fragments of the first interstellar meteor…
Manufacturers of vehicles, electronics, appliances, and more are making it tough for independent shops and DIYers to make repairs. Shouldn’t you be able to get stuff you own fixed where and how you want?
Data-driven approach to history
The first Times crossword Having seen several mind-blowing articles about ChatGPT’s ability (most notably this one), I wondered how ChatGPT would fare solving a cryptic crossword. I decided to try with an easy one: a Quick Cryptic from The Times. I had a search through the Times for the Times archives to try and find…
By Jakub Janovsky , Naalsio , Aloha , Dan , Kemal , and Alexander Black This list only in...
As part of an omnibus bill, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a troubling bill restricting how under-18 users engage with user-generated content (UGC) services. [At the bottom of this post, I’ve included the text as passed by the Minnesota...
Headline Blitz: Semiconductor Edition
"A Machiavellian plot" to kill a Bay Area dream
Despite being designed and operated as a decentralized network-of-networks, the Internet is continuously subjected to forces that encourage centralization. This document offers a definition of centralization, explains why it is undesirable, identifies different types of it, catalogues limitations of common approaches…
Brussels, 16th November 2022 — Nokia and Airbus got their patent lawyers elected as part-time technical judges at the forthcoming Unified Patent Court (UPC). Europe is witnessing corporate capture of its Justice system. Being ‘judges’ in the morning and ‘ patent lawyers’ in the afternoon. The Unified Patent Court is…
Around the end of 2020, I looked at GNOME's commit history as a proxy for the project's overall health. A year and a half went by since then, and it's time for an update.
If you've clicked on the links, you've probably noticed a pattern: they are all Twitter threads. And Twitter threads are an absolute abomination.
It's can't just be an excuse — we need to improve our policies
And why Amazon owes me $3,218.55.
Simulation, Gamification, and the Rise of Algorithmic Capitalism
Research about the influence of computing technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), on society relies heavily upon the financial support of the very companies that produce those technologies. Corporations like Google, Microsoft, and IBM spend millions of dollars each year to sponsor labs, professorships, PhD…
Sometime in 2001, I walked into a Radio Shack on San Francisco's Market Street and asked for a Cuecat: a handheld barcode scanner that looked a bit like a cat and a bit like a sex toy. The clerk handed one over to me and I left, feeling a little giddy. I didn't have to pay a cent.
NUKEMAP was released into the world a decade ago, believe it or not.
We’re sharing details about three deceptive networks we took down during the last quarter.