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Take a trip to Japan's Dododo Land, the most irritating place on Earth

https://soranews24.com/2026/02/07/take-a-trip-to-japans-dododo-land-the-most-irritating-place-on-...
1•zdw•8s ago•0 comments

British drivers over 70 to face eye tests every three years

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c205nxy0p31o
1•bookofjoe•29s ago•1 comments

BookTalk: A Reading Companion That Captures Your Voice

https://github.com/bramses/BookTalk
1•_bramses•1m ago•0 comments

Is AI "good" yet? – tracking HN's sentiment on AI coding

https://www.is-ai-good-yet.com/#home
1•ilyaizen•2m ago•1 comments

Show HN: Amdb – Tree-sitter based memory for AI agents (Rust)

https://github.com/BETAER-08/amdb
1•try_betaer•3m ago•0 comments

OpenClaw Partners with VirusTotal for Skill Security

https://openclaw.ai/blog/virustotal-partnership
1•anhxuan•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Seedance 2.0 Release

https://seedancy2.com/
1•funnycoding•3m ago•0 comments

Leisure Suit Larry's Al Lowe on model trains, funny deaths and Disney

https://spillhistorie.no/2026/02/06/interview-with-sierra-veteran-al-lowe/
1•thelok•3m ago•0 comments

Towards Self-Driving Codebases

https://cursor.com/blog/self-driving-codebases
1•edwinarbus•3m ago•0 comments

VCF West: Whirlwind Software Restoration – Guy Fedorkow [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLoXodz1N9A
1•stmw•4m ago•1 comments

Show HN: COGext – A minimalist, open-source system monitor for Chrome (<550KB)

https://github.com/tchoa91/cog-ext
1•tchoa91•5m ago•1 comments

FOSDEM 26 – My Hallway Track Takeaways

https://sluongng.substack.com/p/fosdem-26-my-hallway-track-takeaways
1•birdculture•6m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Env-shelf – Open-source desktop app to manage .env files

https://env-shelf.vercel.app/
1•ivanglpz•9m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Almostnode – Run Node.js, Next.js, and Express in the Browser

https://almostnode.dev/
1•PetrBrzyBrzek•10m ago•0 comments

Dell support (and hardware) is so bad, I almost sued them

https://blog.joshattic.us/posts/2026-02-07-dell-support-lawsuit
1•radeeyate•11m ago•0 comments

Project Pterodactyl: Incremental Architecture

https://www.jonmsterling.com/01K7/
1•matt_d•11m ago•0 comments

Styling: Search-Text and Other Highlight-Y Pseudo-Elements

https://css-tricks.com/how-to-style-the-new-search-text-and-other-highlight-pseudo-elements/
1•blenderob•13m ago•0 comments

Crypto firm accidentally sends $40B in Bitcoin to users

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-firm-accidentally-sends-40-055054321.html
1•CommonGuy•13m ago•0 comments

Magnetic fields can change carbon diffusion in steel

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260125083427.htm
1•fanf2•14m ago•0 comments

Fantasy football that celebrates great games

https://www.silvestar.codes/articles/ultigamemate/
1•blenderob•14m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Animalese

https://animalese.barcoloudly.com/
1•noreplica•14m ago•0 comments

StrongDM's AI team build serious software without even looking at the code

https://simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/7/software-factory/
3•simonw•15m ago•0 comments

John Haugeland on the failure of micro-worlds

https://blog.plover.com/tech/gpt/micro-worlds.html
1•blenderob•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Velocity - Free/Cheaper Linear Clone but with MCP for agents

https://velocity.quest
2•kevinelliott•16m ago•2 comments

Corning Invented a New Fiber-Optic Cable for AI and Landed a $6B Meta Deal [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3KLbc5DlRs
1•ksec•17m ago•0 comments

Show HN: XAPIs.dev – Twitter API Alternative at 90% Lower Cost

https://xapis.dev
2•nmfccodes•18m ago•1 comments

Near-Instantly Aborting the Worst Pain Imaginable with Psychedelics

https://psychotechnology.substack.com/p/near-instantly-aborting-the-worst
2•eatitraw•24m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Nginx-defender – realtime abuse blocking for Nginx

https://github.com/Anipaleja/nginx-defender
2•anipaleja•24m ago•0 comments

The Super Sharp Blade

https://netzhansa.com/the-super-sharp-blade/
1•robin_reala•26m ago•0 comments

Smart Homes Are Terrible

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/smart-homes-technology/685867/
2•tusslewake•27m ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

Quanta to publish popular math and physics books by Terence Tao and David Tong

https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/12/08/quanta-books-to-publish-popular-math-and-physics-titles-by-terence-tao-and-david-tong/
133•digital55•2mo ago

Comments

srean•2mo ago
I might be unusual in the sense that in my teens I absolutely adored Asimov as a writer of non-fiction rather than as a sci-fi author.

For the current generation, I never miss a chance to mention Gamow's non-fiction.

It's unfortunate that works of great non-fiction writers evaporate away from our cultural consciousness after their death.

It makes me sad that there will be a generation, or maybe it's already upon us, one that has not delighted in Martin Gardner.

asimoff•2mo ago
> I absolutely adored Asimov as a writer of non-fiction rather than as a sci-fi author.

I am the same, though frustratingly he still somehow managed to weave his casual misogyny into even his non-fiction works.

falcor84•2mo ago
I don't know if it says good or bad things about me, but I never noticed that.

But maybe it's just because I started reading his works long after their initial release. In particular, I was quite surprised to later learn that "Asimov's New Guide to Science" was originally published as "The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science".

opo•2mo ago
The title was chosen by the publisher:

>...The book's title was Svirsky's, chosen as a deliberate homage to George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928). Asimov feared the title would be seen as elitist and condescending, and he suggested Everyone's Guide to Science as an alternative, but Svirsky refused. Years later, when he was confronted by annoyed feminists who asked why the book was restricted to men, Asimov would claim that the "intelligent man" of the title referred to himself;[3] thus anticipating the title Asimov's Guide to Science adopted for the third edition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Man%27s_Guide_...

sam_lowry_•2mo ago
Says an account created just to post this horseshit.
asimoff•2mo ago
Clearly you and I have different definitions of "horseshit".

Is this your immature way of asking for an example of what I am addressing in my comment?

fn-mote•2mo ago
This would be a much more appreciated comment if it included even one example.

I’m willing to believe it, but I didn’t notice any in the time I was reading his fiction.

carbarjartar•2mo ago
One example off the top of my head...

In The Building Blocks Of The Universe's section on Calcium:

> Another way of getting round the problem of hard water is to manufacture compounds that behave like soap but don't form insoluble compounds with calcium. Many types of such detergents have been put on the market in the last ten years, and hard water is far less of a problem for the housewife than it used to be.

Reads like '90s era comedy, ala "women be cleaning, amirite?", without even the lazy backdoor of "its just a joke".

chmod775•2mo ago
This is such an uncharitable reading. "Housewifes" were extremely common then and were marketed to quite extensively in those product categories. Acknowledging them in some form is not the same as saying "I have deeply thought about the state of our society and have come to the conclusion that all is as should be."
veqq•2mo ago
Which of Gamow's do you recommend? Physics Foundation and Frontiers looks nice.
srean•2mo ago
My favorite is one two three ... infinity.
akashshah87•2mo ago
>> I might be unusual in the sense that in my teens I absolutely adored Asimov as a writer of non-fiction rather than as a sci-fi author.

That's because he was only the second-best sci-fi writer but the best science writer in the world at the time [Clarke-Asimov Treaty of Park Avenue|https://sfandfantasy.co.uk/php/the-big-3.php]

srean•2mo ago
Ha!

I did not know about this. Arthur C Clarke was indeed my favourite at that time (even now).

Asimov, however, killed it with his two goosebump-good shorts, Nightfall and Last Question.

pavel_lishin•2mo ago
I don't remember reading any Clarke short stories, though I do remember a few books favorably - but Asimov's stories were incredible, and stick with me to this day. I should get a few more of his short story collections for the kiddo, I think I have a few of his non-fiction ones on a bookshelf somewhere.
addaon•2mo ago
> I don't remember reading any Clarke short stories

Stop what you’re doing and read The Star.

pavel_lishin•2mo ago
Oh yeah, I remember that one! I forgot that Clarke wrote it.
throwaway81523•2mo ago
The 9 billion names of God is very famous.
zem•2mo ago
brilliant stories both, but my two favourite asimov shorts are "profession" (I really, really love the trope that a regimented society depends on outcasts and outsiders for any sort of innovation) and "the martian way" (one of his more minor shorts, but it captures the joy and optimism of golden age solar system exploration fiction like nothing else I've read)
lo_zamoyski•2mo ago
If Lem was there, he would likely have agreed to dedicate his books to "the best third-rate scifi writers", given his generally critical view of American/Western scifi as naive, "commercial trash", and shallow entertainment.
srean•2mo ago
Too bad that I wouldn't be able to read Lem in the original. It's not an easy language to learn, is what I hear.
__rito__•2mo ago
Not all Western sci-fi are gadget dangling spaceship displays. That might have appeared as the trend to Lem, and I don't blame him. I have only Solaris that's by him, and gotta admit- it's on another level.
the__alchemist•2mo ago
Sagan's books are still very popular, long after his time.
mmooss•2mo ago
> It's unfortunate that works of great non-fiction writers evaporate away from our cultural consciousness after their death.

That's a bit of an overstatement? There's Confucius, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, ... Darwin, Newton, Einstein, ... Jefferson, Decartes, .... (you get the idea).

It is a competitive field; what's sufficient to win attention in the current generation is often not enough for future generations, which have their own contemporary writers.

zem•2mo ago
martin gardner stood head and shoulders above everyone else for me, but asimov did indeed have some great works of non-fiction.
thekevan•2mo ago
Dr David Tong is great ad his talk really created my interest in quantum physics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNVQfWC_evg

adolph•2mo ago
I had the thought that maybe the Australian airline had started a book side business, a la Stripe, but no, the airline is actually Quantas. Still seems like an imprint to follow.

  Launched by Thomas Lin, the founding editor of Quanta Magazine, in 
  partnership with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Quanta Books is an editorially 
  independent subsidiary of the Simons Foundation, a nonprofit organization 
  dedicated to advancing the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic 
  sciences. 
https://www.quantabooks.org/
quickthrowman•2mo ago
The Simons Foundation was started by Jim Simons of Renaissance Tech, someone who seemingly isnt actively trying to poison public discourse with his billions of dollars, which I respect. We need more Jim Simons types and less Bezos/Musk/Ellison-type narcissistic psychopaths.
prof-dr-ir•2mo ago
Since May 2024 he isn't actively trying anything at all.
auntienomen•2mo ago
His foundations are still doing good work.
homarp•2mo ago
If you're curious about Simons, and the wikipedia page is not enough, I found "The Man Who Solved the Market" by Gregory Zuckerman an interesting read.
molticrystal•2mo ago
From the Quanta Books website [0] it seems it will be a while before anybody can read them, the article lists a couple dates but all the dates are on its website.

Everything Is Fields By David Tong (Early 2027)

Six Math Essentials By Terence Tao (November 2026)

The Proof in the Code By Kevin Hartnett (June 2026, Preorder Available)

[0] https://www.quantabooks.org/

marhee•2mo ago
I will definitely reads these books when they come out.

For a historic overview of mathematics with (accessible) formulas I highly recommend “Journey through genius: The great theorems of mathematics”.

the__alchemist•2mo ago
Fantastic! Quanta is a treasure. The only news site I read; got too tilted with how violence-oriented and vulgar most news sources have become.
shric•2mo ago
> The only news site I read

If you haven’t tried it already I highly recommend Hacker News.

apnorton•2mo ago
It's interesting to see Quanta make a foray into print publishing. I've long-wished for a print form of Quanta math articles in a monthly magazine, so maybe there is some hope for that eventually?