frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Make Trust Irrelevant: A Gamer's Take on Agentic AI Safety

https://github.com/Deso-PK/make-trust-irrelevant
2•DesoPK•3m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Sem – Semantic diffs and patches for Git

https://ataraxy-labs.github.io/sem/
1•rs545837•4m ago•1 comments

Hello world does not compile

https://github.com/anthropics/claudes-c-compiler/issues/1
1•mfiguiere•10m ago•0 comments

Show HN: ZigZag – A Bubble Tea-Inspired TUI Framework for Zig

https://github.com/meszmate/zigzag
2•meszmate•12m ago•0 comments

Metaphor+Metonymy: "To love that well which thou must leave ere long"(Sonnet73)

https://www.huckgutman.com/blog-1/shakespeare-sonnet-73
1•gsf_emergency_6•14m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Django N+1 Queries Checker

https://github.com/richardhapb/django-check
1•richardhapb•30m ago•1 comments

Emacs-tramp-RPC: High-performance TRAMP back end using JSON-RPC instead of shell

https://github.com/ArthurHeymans/emacs-tramp-rpc
1•todsacerdoti•34m ago•0 comments

Protocol Validation with Affine MPST in Rust

https://hibanaworks.dev
1•o8vm•39m ago•1 comments

Female Asian Elephant Calf Born at the Smithsonian National Zoo

https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/female-asian-elephant-calf-born-smithsonians-national-zoo-an...
2•gmays•40m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Zest – A hands-on simulator for Staff+ system design scenarios

https://staff-engineering-simulator-880284904082.us-west1.run.app/
1•chanip0114•41m ago•1 comments

Show HN: DeSync – Decentralized Economic Realm with Blockchain-Based Governance

https://github.com/MelzLabs/DeSync
1•0xUnavailable•46m ago•0 comments

Automatic Programming Returns

https://cyber-omelette.com/posts/the-abstraction-rises.html
1•benrules2•49m ago•1 comments

Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation [pdf]

https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/Why%20Are%20there%20Still%20So%20Many%...
2•oidar•51m ago•0 comments

The Search Engine Map

https://www.searchenginemap.com
1•cratermoon•58m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Souls.directory – SOUL.md templates for AI agent personalities

https://souls.directory
1•thedaviddias•1h ago•0 comments

Real-Time ETL for Enterprise-Grade Data Integration

https://tabsdata.com
1•teleforce•1h ago•0 comments

Economics Puzzle Leads to a New Understanding of a Fundamental Law of Physics

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/economics-puzzle-leads-to-a-new-understanding-of-a-fundamental...
3•geox•1h ago•1 comments

Switzerland's Extraordinary Medieval Library

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20260202-inside-switzerlands-extraordinary-medieval-library
2•bookmtn•1h ago•0 comments

A new comet was just discovered. Will it be visible in broad daylight?

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-comet-visible-broad-daylight.html
3•bookmtn•1h ago•0 comments

ESR: Comes the news that Anthropic has vibecoded a C compiler

https://twitter.com/esrtweet/status/2019562859978539342
2•tjr•1h ago•0 comments

Frisco residents divided over H-1B visas, 'Indian takeover' at council meeting

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2026/02/04/frisco-residents-divided-over-h-1b-visas-indi...
4•alephnerd•1h ago•5 comments

If CNN Covered Star Wars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vArJg_SU4Lc
1•keepamovin•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: I built the first tool to configure VPSs without commands

https://the-ultimate-tool-for-configuring-vps.wiar8.com/
2•Wiar8•1h ago•3 comments

AI agents from 4 labs predicting the Super Bowl via prediction market

https://agoramarket.ai/
1•kevinswint•1h ago•1 comments

EU bans infinite scroll and autoplay in TikTok case

https://twitter.com/HennaVirkkunen/status/2019730270279356658
6•miohtama•1h ago•5 comments

Benchmarking how well LLMs can play FizzBuzz

https://huggingface.co/spaces/venkatasg/fizzbuzz-bench
1•_venkatasg•1h ago•1 comments

Why I Joined OpenAI

https://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2026-02-07/why-i-joined-openai.html
26•SerCe•1h ago•21 comments

Octave GTM MCP Server

https://docs.octavehq.com/mcp/overview
1•connor11528•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Portview what's on your ports (diagnostic-first, single binary, Linux)

https://github.com/Mapika/portview
3•Mapika•1h ago•0 comments

Voyager CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/05/amazon-amzn-q4-earnings-report-2025.html
1•belter•1h ago•0 comments
Open in hackernews

The "Discombobulator": Unpacking the Physics of the Weapon That Captured Maduro

https://medium.com/@jcanchola1264/the-discombobulator-unpacking-the-physics-and-the-risks-of-the-weapon-that-captured-maduro-899be6f43aa9
16•mojosam•1w ago

Comments

davydm•1w ago
I honestly expected more outrage from people : this weapon usage is exactly the kind of thing the Geneva convention was all about, just not mentioned by name. It's worrying that everyone is ok with one country sending troops to microwave their enemies and steal away their leader.
Bender•1w ago
The Geneva convention has been ignored for a very long time. Example: Using a .50 cal on humans is against the Geneva convention and yet has been used quite frequently in combat everywhere for the last 30 years. The only benefit I have seen and experienced from the Geneva convention was to get out of palletization (their odd term for mobility training) when I was in the military as at the time I was a sole survivor DoD Directive 1315.15 derived from the Geneva convention. I was honestly surprised that even worked. Instead they made me clean ceiling lights for a few hours.
arter45•1w ago
There were some early reports (2008) of the microwave auditory effect being less significant than heat:

>Bill Guy, a former professor at the University of Washington who has also published on the microwave auditory effect, agrees. ”There couldn’t possibly be a hazard from the sound, because the heat would get you first,” Guy says.

>Guy says that experiments have demonstrated that radiation at 40 microjoules per pulse per square centimeter produces sound at zero decibels, which is just barely in hearing range. To produce sound at 60 decibels, or the sound of normal conversation, requires 40 watts per square centimeter of radiation. ”That would kill you pretty fast,” Guy says. Producing an unpleasant sound, at about 120 decibels, would take 40 million W/cm2 of energy. One milliwatt per square centimeter is considered to be the safety threshold.

Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/why-microwave-auditory-effect-crow...

It's true that this was almost 20 years ago and, who knows, maybe it was just a cover-up, but if the math is right and those soldiers weren't subjected to a lot of heat, this explanation could be ruled out.

Then again, if you have truly built a portable high-powered microwave weapon (assuming it is truly portable and not just something you stick on a helicopter), you can easily add a couple of directional speakers using standard LRAD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_acoustic_device) technology. It's just a question of packaging and maybe some extra cable shielding.

Additionally, we cannot discount the possibility that there were two different weapons. One with a longer range and dealing with radars and missile systems (HPM?) and another, possibly more "conventional", with a shorter range to incapacitate soldiers. After all, AFAIK, US military disabled radars before descending on the ground (which makes sense), so you can disable radars from hundres of meters/ some kilometers away, while close-quarter combat can happen at shorter ranges.

DivingForGold•1w ago
A nice, detailed write up, but still it's all conjecture.

The "known" technique of eliminating radar sites is our HARM missles.

Without radar, the missles don't have data to know where to go

bediger4000•1w ago
This sounds like the Havana Syndrome of a few years ago. We all know a particular N. American government that wouldn't mind testing a sci-fi weapon on its own citizens.
dripdry45•1w ago
this was exactly my first thought as well. And it was long enough ago that it sure seems like it could be a test of that system, whatever it was. and we somehow weren’t able to figure out what it was or how it worked...
llbbdd•1w ago
God this fuckign hurts to read

The Subheading! Here's why it matters: - Five sentences - Three Sentences - Five More Sentences

The abbreviated point you were trying to reach - it only took fifteen minutes!

treetalker•1w ago
The title is bad enough: the weapon that captured Maduro?

"We went to fire our missles but then, all of a sudden, the US military made us read posts on Medium and then it felt like our brains were rattling and we started bleeding out of our nostrils."

ChrisArchitect•1w ago
Earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46754101

Related:

Pentagon buys device via undercover operation suspected link to Havana Syndrome

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46608913

amai•1w ago
See also

Government denies using 'sonic cannon' at Serbia protests

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqjdpy8dyzzo

amai•1w ago
Could be this simple lockpicking device: https://www.lockpickingsets.de/lockpicking-set/discombobulat...
amai•1w ago
Somebody at the pentagon likes World of Warcraft: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Discombobulator_Ray