Hacker News with Generative AI: History

When Jorge Luis Borges met one of the founders of AI (resobscura.substack.com)
One reason I became a historian is the joy of encountering moments in the past that are foreign, yet also oddly familiar. These moments seem to ripple outward, lapping up against the present in unexpected ways.

Artificial Intelligence, History, Literature

96 points by benbreen 8 hours ago | 28 comments

Trump makes history by pardoning a corporation (thehill.com)
In what may be a first in American history, President Trump just expanded the presidential pardon power to include corporations.

Politics, Law, History

18 points by pseudolus 9 hours ago | 3 comments

"Fiume O Morte " Brilliantly Dramatizes the Rise of a Demagogue (newyorker.com)
Many filmmakers display undue faith in their ability to depict ways of life far outside their own experience. This blithe self-confidence is particularly egregious in depictions of distant history, where imagination inevitably courts fabrication.

Film, History, Politics, Demagoguery

25 points by rbanffy 11 hours ago | 6 comments

Facebook Is Hiding Heather Cox Richardson's Posts (closertotheedge.substack.com)
On March 31, 2025, one of the most trusted historians in America watched her own words disappear from the internet.

Social Media, Censorship, Politics, History

33 points by nicpottier 13 hours ago | 18 comments

The timeless genius of a Atari developer and his swimming salmon masterpiece (arstechnica.com)
In 1982, while most game developers were busy with space invaders and maze ghosts, Bill Williams created something far more profound: a game about swimming upstream against impossible odds.

Gaming, Atari, History

20 points by myth_drannon 23 hours ago | 0 comments

Forking Work Simplification – Let's Bring Back Eisenhower's Process Improvement (governance.fyi)
Happy April Fool’s, but frankly we are all (well almost all) business today with a neat little update.

Process Improvement, Management, Business, History

60 points by RetiredRichard 1 day ago | 41 comments

Cory Booker breaks record for longest speech by US senator in Trump condemnation (theguardian.com)
Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator – beating the record first established by Strom Thurmond, who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Politics, U.S. Politics, History, Civil Rights

39 points by dkh 1 day ago | 0 comments

Cory Booker breaks record for longest Senate speech, beating Strom Thurmond (usatoday.com)
Sen. Cory Booker on Tuesday delivered the longest recorded floor speech in Senate history, breaking the record set by segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond in 1957.

Politics, US Senate, History

14 points by jredwards 1 day ago | 0 comments

Senate Bean Soup (wikipedia.org)
United States Senate Bean Soup or simply Senate bean soup is a soup made with navy beans, ham hocks, and onion. It is served in the dining room of the United States Senate every day, in a tradition that dates back to the early 20th century. The original version included celery, garlic, and parsley. One of the two versions used today includes mashed potatoes.

Food, History, Politics

5 points by donnachangstein 1 day ago | 0 comments

Parcae Ocean Surveillance Satellites (thespacereview.com)
On April 30, 1976, an Atlas F rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base carrying a new type of satellite into space.

Space, Satellites, History

12 points by mandevil 1 day ago | 0 comments

A look back: WordPerfect on DOS (2023) (technicallywewrite.com)
There was a saying in the 1980s that if you knew how to use WordPerfect, you were guaranteed a job in any office.

Word Processors, Operating Systems, History, Technology

32 points by TMWNN 1 day ago | 45 comments

Metrication in Canada (wikipedia.org)
Metrication in Canada began in 1970 and ceased in 1985.

Canada, History, Measurement Systems, Metric System

3 points by e-master 1 day ago | 0 comments

Implementing a spellchecker on 64 kB of RAM in 70s led to compression algorithm (pcgamer.com)

Algorithms, Computer Science, History, Programming, Memory Management

3 points by amichail 1 day ago | 0 comments

Globe Gores (blogs.loc.gov)
The Geography and Map Division holds a variety of printed globe gores in a variety of sizes and configurations ranging from some of the earliest examples in the 16th century to more modern examples in the 20th century.

Geography, History, Maps, Globes

34 points by bookofjoe 2 days ago | 3 comments

Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101 (bbc.com)
A decorated World War Two code breaker who spent her youth deciphering enemy messages at Bletchley Park has died at the age of 101.

History, Code Breaking, Obituaries

489 points by danso 2 days ago | 96 comments

Ukrainian Soldiers Unearth Ancient Greek Burial (archaeology.org)

Ukraine, Archaeology, Ancient Greece, History

83 points by isaacfrond 2 days ago | 8 comments

Notes on the Pentium's microcode circuitry (righto.com)
Most people think of machine instructions as the fundamental steps that a computer performs. However, many processors have another layer of software underneath: microcode. With microcode, instead of building the processor's control circuitry from complex logic gates, the control logic is implemented with code known as microcode, stored in the microcode ROM. To execute a machine instruction, the computer internally executes several simpler micro-instructions, specified by the microcode.

Computer Architecture, Microcode, Hardware, Processors, History

179 points by leotravis10 2 days ago | 32 comments

Cuneiforms: New digital tool for translating ancient texts (sciencedaily.com)
Major milestone reached in digital Cuneiform studies: Researchers present an innovative tool that offers many new possibilities.

Ancient Languages, Archaeology, Digital Tools, Technology, History

31 points by docmechanic 2 days ago | 3 comments

Bell Labs Holmdel Complex (wikipedia.org)
The Bell Labs Holmdel Complex, in Holmdel Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, functioned for 44 years as a research and development facility, initially for the Bell System and later Bell Labs.[3] The centerpiece of the campus is an Eero Saarinen–designed structure that served as the home to over 6,000 engineers and researchers.[4] This modernist building, dubbed "The Biggest Mirror Ever" by Architectural Forum due to its mirror box exterior, was the site of a Nobel Prize discovery, the

History, Architecture, Research, New Jersey

30 points by lordleft 3 days ago | 7 comments

The demoscene as a UNESCO heritage in Sweden (goto80.com)
The demoscene has become a national UNESCO-heritage in Sweden, thanks to an application that Ziphoid and me did last year.

Culture, Sweden, Computer Graphics, Art, History

631 points by robin_reala 3 days ago | 85 comments

The Unluckiest Astronomer in History (armaghplanet.com)
Whether you are a researcher gathering data, or a hobbyist taking photos from your back garden, astronomy has always required a certain amount of good luck. Instruments can be uncooperative, data can be lost or damaged, and of course there’s the ever-present threat of bad weather. This is nothing new, and the long history of astronomy is full of examples of things not quite going according to plan for even the most brilliant observers.

Astronomy, History, Science

4 points by shubhamjain 3 days ago | 0 comments

Lapham's Quarterly Announces New Stewardship (laphamsquarterly.org)
Lapham’s Quarterly, the celebrated journal of history and ideas founded by the late editor and journalist Lewis H. Lapham, will relaunch under the stewardship of Bard College and its Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities in 2025.

Journalism, History, Humanities, Publishing

45 points by benbreen 3 days ago | 6 comments

Microsoft turns 50: Four employees recall their early years (seattletimes.com)
Fifty years ago, two kids from Seattle flipped the tech industry on its head.

Microsoft, Technology, History, Business, Seattle

7 points by jnord 3 days ago | 2 comments

Fragments of a rare Merlin manuscript from c. 1300 (cam.ac.uk)
A fragile 13th century manuscript fragment, hidden in plain sight as the binding of a 16th-century archival register, has been discovered in Cambridge and revealed to contain rare medieval stories of Merlin and King Arthur.

History, Manuscripts, Medieval Literature, King Arthur, Merlin

135 points by derbOac 3 days ago | 37 comments

Greek Language Question (wikipedia.org)
The Greek language question (Greek: το γλωσσικό ζήτημα, to glossikó zítima) was a dispute about whether the vernacular of the Greek people (Demotic Greek) or a cultivated literary language based on Ancient Greek (Katharevousa) should be the prevailing language of the people and government of Greece.

Language, History, Greece, Politics

25 points by brendanashworth 3 days ago | 1 comments

Visions of Greenland (worldhistory.substack.com)
The outside world has long projected its desires onto the world's biggest island

Greenland, History, Geography, Culture

3 points by crescit_eundo 3 days ago | 0 comments

The Code That Controls Your Money (wealthsimple.com)
COBOL is a coding language older than Weird Al Yankovic. The people who know how to use it are often just as old. It underpins the entire financial system. And it can’t be removed. How a computer language controls the financial life of the world.

Finance, Programming Languages, Technology, History

21 points by Breadmaker 3 days ago | 2 comments

In the New Beijing (lrb.co.uk)
My generation has seen four paramount leaders: Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and now Xi Jinping.

China, Politics, Leadership, History, Opinion

18 points by mitchbob 3 days ago | 1 comments

Medvedev–Putin Tandemocracy (wikipedia.org)
The Medvedev–Putin tandemocracy (Russian: Тандем Медведев—Путин) was the joint leadership of Russia between 2008 and 2012 when Vladimir Putin, who was constitutionally barred from serving a third consecutive term as president of Russia, assumed the role of prime minister under President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia, Politics, History

7 points by niemandhier 3 days ago | 0 comments

The First LLM (thundergolfer.com)
In January 2018, as I wrestled with Golang in my second internship, Australian Jeremy Howard published ULMFit, the first LLM.

History

16 points by gronky_ 3 days ago | 1 comments