Scientists from Northwestern Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have identified a molecular defect in systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) involving insufficient activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR).
Reactivating AHR in lupus patients' blood samples converted harmful T peripheral helper cells into Th22 cells, which may aid in wound healing and offer new treatment avenues.
The findings, published in Nature, suggest potential new treatments for lupus without the side effects of current therapies, supported by NIH grants and other organizations.
Scientists have identified the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) pathway as a potential cause of lupus and a method to reverse it, which could lead to new treatments.
A person with lupus reported achieving remission through dietary changes, specifically by eliminating meat and focusing on raw leafy vegetables.
The discovery highlights the significant role of diet and gut health in managing autoimmune conditions, sparking discussions among individuals with similar health issues.
WALL·E balances themes of consumerist dystopia and sixties space-race optimism, offering a unique robotic future perspective.
The movie features detailed design elements, such as the Gunship typeface and BnL’s logo, and includes numerous references to classic sci-fi and Disney attractions.
WALL·E’s journey and the Axiom’s design are influenced by real-world aesthetics and technology, including Apple’s sleek design and nods to iconic sci-fi elements like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The article provides an in-depth cultural analysis of the movie Wall·E, covering typography, architecture, art styles, film, and music, with numerous links and reference images.
The discussion highlights the intricate details in Wall·E that most viewers might miss, emphasizing the impact of these elements on the movie's storytelling and feel.
A notable point is the mention of Iconian Fonts, created by a hobbyist who is a commercial transaction attorney, and how his fonts have been used in major movie franchises.
"dut" is a multi-threaded disk usage calculator written in C, designed to be faster than existing tools like "du" when Linux's caches are warm.
Key performance improvements include using fstatat(2) and statx(2) system calls, and getdents(2) for directory contents, resulting in significant speed increases.
"dut" features a more intuitive readout inspired by ncdu, and installation involves compiling a single source file and placing it in your path.
"Dut" is a high-performance, multi-threaded Linux disk usage calculator written in C, designed to outperform traditional tools like "du" when Linux's caches are warm.
It displays a tree of the largest items in the current directory, including hard-link sizes, and uses advanced techniques like fstatat(2), statx(2), and getdents(2) for enhanced performance.
Installation is straightforward, requiring the download and compilation of a single source file, and it provides a quick, non-interactive overview of disk usage.
The blog post discusses best practices and principles for creating accurate and reliable software-based financial systems, drawing from the author's experience in big tech.
Key engineering principles include immutability and durability, smallest grain representation, and idempotency, ensuring data accuracy, auditability, and timeliness.
Best practices highlighted are using integers for financial amounts, consistent rounding methodologies, delaying currency conversion, and using integer representations of time.
Key engineering principles for financial systems include consistent rounding, precise time representation, and careful handling of leap seconds.
Financial systems should use relational databases for ACID compliance and precision, and delay currency conversion to avoid precision loss.
Extensive testing, intuitive user interfaces, and careful management of transaction identifiers are crucial for accuracy and compliance in financial systems.
Security researchers from the CCC accessed over 200 million SMS messages containing one-time passwords from more than 200 companies, highlighting vulnerabilities in 2FA-SMS.
The CCC demonstrated that service providers sending 2FA-SMS can access and potentially leak these messages, as seen with IdentifyMobile, which exposed real-time one-time passwords online.
Recommendations include using app-generated one-time passwords or hardware tokens for better security, as 2FA-SMS remains susceptible to attacks like SIM swapping and SS7 exploitation.
A family friend was targeted by a phishing attack through a fake "BANKNAME login" site advertised on Google, leading to a fraudulent transaction.
The incident underscores that while app-based 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) is generally more secure, SMS 2FA might have been more effective in this case due to its action-specific messages.
The discussion emphasizes the need for 2FA systems that generate specific tokens for different transactions and the importance of using ad blockers and better security practices to prevent such scams.
Palestinians accuse Microsoft of unfairly closing their email accounts, impacting access to essential services like banking, job offers, and Skype, crucial for communication amid the Israeli military campaign.
Microsoft cites violations of its terms of service, a claim disputed by the affected users, who suspect wrongful association with Hamas or suspected fraudulent activity.
Individuals like Eiad Hametto, Salah Elsadi, and Khalid Obaied report significant disruptions to their work and family communication, leading to frustration and distrust towards Microsoft.
Microsoft has restricted access to Skype and Hotmail for Palestinians in Gaza, sparking accusations of complicity in Israel's "complete siege."
Users are unable to contact family or access bank accounts linked to their Hotmail addresses, raising concerns about the impact on essential services.
The incident underscores the broader issue of tech companies' control over critical services and the potential need for more open, decentralized platforms in conflict zones.
The paper titled "An Abundance of Katherines: The Game Theory of Baby Naming" explores the competitive nature of baby naming using game theory, assuming parents choose names based on uniqueness.
The study employs a clean, tractable model and extends its analysis with numerical experiments and large language model tools, providing insights and future research directions.
Accepted at SIGBOVIK 2024, the paper is categorized under Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) and Computers and Society (cs.CY).
A humorous paper titled "An Abundance of Katherines: The Game Theory of Baby Naming" explores the popularity and selection process of names derived from Katherine.
The paper, likely submitted for April Fools' Day, uses recursive references, jokes, and playful assumptions to discuss naming trends, cultural influences, and the challenges of choosing unique yet traditional names.
The authors, all with similar names, provide witty remarks and clever observations, making the paper both entertaining and insightful.
A global internet sweep by ICPEN found that 75.7% of 642 websites and mobile apps used at least one dark pattern, with 66.8% using two or more.
Dark patterns are deceptive online practices that manipulate consumer choices, such as auto-renewal traps and interface interference.
The sweep, conducted by 27 consumer protection authorities from 26 countries, highlights the intersection of consumer protection and privacy, with detailed reports available online.
Many websites and apps employ dark patterns to push subscriptions, leading to issues like account access loss, unexpected charges, and forgotten subscriptions.
Solutions such as virtual debit cards, centralized subscription management tools, and paying by invoice can help mitigate these problems.
There is a growing call for legislation to mandate easy cancellation processes to better protect consumers from these deceptive practices.
The "Big Ball of Mud" software architecture is characterized by its chaotic and expedient structure, yet it remains prevalent due to its effectiveness in certain contexts.
The paper identifies patterns such as "Throwaway Code," "Piecemeal Growth," and "Shearing Layers" that contribute to the formation of such systems.
Understanding the forces like time constraints, cost, and complexity that drive the creation of "Big Ball of Mud" systems can help in developing more durable and elegant software architectures.
The discussion revolves around the concept of "Big Ball of Mud" (BBoM), a term used to describe a software system with no clear architecture, often resulting from continuous patching and lack of refactoring.
Some participants argue that working on BBoM can be manageable and even "chill" if one only aims to meet professional responsibilities, while others find it soul-crushing and unfulfilling.
The conversation highlights the trade-offs between maintaining a BBoM for quick fixes and the long-term benefits of refactoring and clean code, with examples from various industries like banking and gaming.
An AT&T Fiber Internet user experienced a significant drop in speed from ~1 Gbps to 8 Mbps, prompting frustration and a call to customer support.
The user struggled with AT&T's AI chatbot, which confused 'WiFi' with 'Internet', and faced unhelpful responses from a human representative.
The incident highlights ongoing issues with ISP customer support and the limitations of current AI chatbots in effectively resolving technical problems.
The trend of using AI chatbots for customer service is criticized for distancing customers from human interaction, which some believe shows a lack of care from companies.
The author argues that while AI chatbots can be useful, many current implementations are poorly designed and frustrating, highlighting the need for a balance between AI and human support.
The emphasis is on the importance of customer support, suggesting that prioritizing short-term profits over customer experience is short-sighted and detrimental to long-term success.
Binance successfully migrated from Elasticsearch to Quickwit, scaling their log indexing to 1.6 PB per day and managing a 100 PB log search cluster.
The migration resulted in an 80% reduction in compute costs and a 20x reduction in storage costs, significantly improving log retention and troubleshooting capabilities.
Quickwit’s native Kafka integration, built-in VRL transformations, and use of object storage were key factors in addressing Binance's log management challenges.
Binance developed a 100PB (petabyte) log service using Quickwit, highlighting the need for extensive log storage in financial organizations for regulatory compliance.
There is a debate on the utility of logs versus metrics, with metrics being seen as more effective for monitoring system health and logs for diagnosing specific issues.
The discussion underscores the importance of balancing storage costs, efficient log management, and retention policies in handling large-scale log data.
The author, David Reed, describes an overengineered approach to maintaining a resume, focusing on separating content from presentation, version control, and multiple output formats.
Tools used include JSON Resume for data representation, Zola's Tera template engine for templating, Weasyprint for PDF rendering, and NixOS for environment setup and dependency management.
Continuous integration is achieved using GitHub Actions to automate PDF rendering on commits, ensuring the resume is always up-to-date without manual intervention.
A Hacker News discussion explores the trend of overengineering resumes using tools like Zola, JSON Resume, Weasyprint, and Nix, with some users advocating for LaTeX due to its modularity and consistency.
Alternatives such as Typst and JSON Resume are mentioned for their easier setup and better error handling, while simpler methods like Google Docs or LibreOffice are also favored by some.
The consensus emphasizes that while overengineering resumes can be enjoyable, the content of the resume is ultimately more crucial than its presentation, especially considering the challenges of automated resume parsing by ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems).
Qualcomm's Oryon core, developed from Nuvia's technology, marks Qualcomm's return to internally designed smartphone SoCs after eight years, debuting in the Snapdragon X Elite.
The Snapdragon X1E-80-10 features 12 Oryon cores in three quad-core clusters, each with a 12 MB L2 cache, and showcases advanced architecture with high reordering capacity and efficient address translation.
Qualcomm faces challenges in overcoming compatibility issues and high device costs to compete with AMD and Intel, needing collaboration with OEMs to offer competitive prices and improve software compatibility.
Qualcomm's Oryon core has been a long time in development, generating significant interest in the tech community.
The discussion highlights the M4 chip in Apple's iPad, noted for its high single-core performance but criticized for being underutilized due to the restrictive iPad OS.
The debate centers around the utility of powerful chips in closed platforms like the iPad versus more open systems like macOS or Linux, which can leverage such hardware for a broader range of professional and technical applications.
A global study by Sapien Labs indicates that children who receive smartphones at a younger age tend to have poorer mental health as adults, with a stronger effect observed in girls.
The research, involving nearly a million participants, shows a consistent pattern across different regions and languages, linking early smartphone use to worse mental health in young adulthood.
The study suggests that increased exposure to social media and phone addiction may contribute to these mental health issues, urging parents, educators, and policymakers to reconsider the appropriate age for children to receive smartphones.
The post discusses the impact of early smartphone use on children's mental health, with mixed opinions on its severity.
Some argue that while smartphones and social media can increase anxiety and depression, the effects are not universally catastrophic and vary by region.
Critics highlight the need for more rigorous, peer-reviewed studies to establish causation and address potential confirmation biases in existing research.
Yasmin Nair criticizes the NYT Book Review for failing to seriously engage with books and the publishing industry, becoming bland and reluctant to express opinions.
The Review perpetuates harmful trends, such as tokenizing non-white writers and focusing on the Big Five publishers, reinforcing material inequality in publishing.
Nair calls for a new approach to book criticism that considers the economics of publishing and supports a broader range of voices, highlighting the long-term negative effects of the Review's current practices on book culture.
The NYT Book Review is often criticized for being bland, overly commercial, and part of the MFA-publishing complex, leading many in the literary community to not take it seriously.
Alternatives like the New York Review of Books (NYRB) and the London Review of Books (LRB) are praised for offering more insightful essays, while smaller magazines and subreddits provide lively discussions and recommendations.
The NYT's bestseller list is perceived as biased and gamified, contributing to the view that the NYT Book Review lacks depth and originality compared to other literary review sources.