🇺🇸 Hacker News English

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) might be influenced by the gut microbiota.

Transplanting microbiota from SAD patients into mice increased their social fear.

The study highlights the microbiota's possible role in brain and behavior regulation, specifically social functions.

The Dull Men's Club is a popular international group where people embrace and share the mundanity of everyday life.

Founded as a joke in the 1980s, the club encourages members to 'out-dull' each other with their activities and interests.

Members find joy in seemingly mundane or 'dull' activities, such as daily life's minutiae, while rejecting overly exciting topics.

Europe is facing increased internet disruptions due to geopolitical tensions and climate change, prompting the need for improved internet resilience.

Internet Resiliency Clubs are volunteer groups using LoRa radios and Meshtastic software to maintain communications without centralized infrastructure.

These clubs can help restore internet connectivity in crises, with volunteers using cheap, low-power, low-bandwidth technology.

Using AI like ChatGPT for essay writing can lead to weaker brain connectivity and less cognitive engagement compared to not using tools.

Participants who relied on AI struggled more with memory recall and ownership of their work.

Long-term use of AI for writing tasks may have negative impacts on learning and cognitive function.

Preston Thorpe became a software engineer at Turso while incarcerated, working from his prison cell.

Thorpe's journey began with a rediscovery of programming during a prison college program.

He became part of the Maine Department of Correction’s remote work program, leading him to a job at Unlocked Labs.

Benzene was discovered by Michael Faraday in 1825, revolutionizing organic chemistry.

The molecule's stability and reactivity have made it a foundational element in numerous fields.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nanographenes have emerged from benzene's chemical structure.

WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, is introducing ads for the first time in its app, specifically in the 'Updates' section which is used by 1.5 billion people daily.

The ads will target users based on certain data like location and default language, but will not interfere with message contents or user interactions.

End-to-end encryption for personal messages, calls, and statuses will remain intact despite the introduction of ads.

Nanonets-OCR-s is an advanced OCR model that converts documents into structured markdown, enhancing content recognition and semantic tagging.

It can recognize LaTeX equations, intelligently describe images, and detect components like signatures and watermarks in documents.

The model handles complex table extraction and standardizes form checkboxes for improved processing.

Chawan version 0.2.0 has been released, offering a command-line web browser with improvements over previous versions.

The release includes a source tarball and a static binary for amd64 Linux, along with installation instructions.

Key runtime dependencies have been updated to include libssh2, libbrotli, and either OpenSSL 3.0+ or LibreSSL.

A study involved various religious leaders taking psilocybin, leading to profound spiritual experiences for most participants.

More than 90% of the clergy found the experience spiritually meaningful, and almost half considered it the most profound of their lives.

Some clergy became proponents of psychedelics in religious contexts, even integrating them into their teachings.