Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

I’ve always preferred to take afternoon naps (but it isn’t usually feasible on workdays 🥱) – the bit about long naps is concerning 😥:

“How To Get Power Naps Right”, The Economist (www.economist.com/science-and-... or archive.is/Rqz8V).

#Naps #Sleep #Health

How to get power naps right

It’s all in the timing

www.economist.com

February 8, 2026 at 4:55 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

The RRBC Piccassso guys have been *destroying* the peace in the Jayanagar 4th T & 9th Block neighborhoods in Bangalore for *days* with loud religious songs & speech day & night, but neither the police nor the MLA are willing to do anything about it. 😡

#NoisePollution

February 8, 2026 at 2:17 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

Wonderful:

“10 Years Of Wasm: A Retrospective”, The Bytecode Alliance (bytecodealliance.org/articles/ten...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4679...

#Internet #Web #WASM #WebAssembly #Bytecode #VirtualMachine #Mozilla #Google #JavaScript #Portability #Programming #Retrospective

10 Years of Wasm: A Retrospective

In April of 2015, Luke Wagner made the first commits to a new repository called WebAssembly/design, adding a high-level design document for a “binary format to serve as a web compilation target.”

bytecodealliance.org

February 1, 2026 at 12:53 PM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

A must-read #paper 👇🏽 if you use #AI to boost your #productivity:

“How AI Impacts Skill Formation”, Judy Hanwen Shen & Alex Tamkin, Anthropic (arxiv.org/abs/2601.20245).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4682...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/k6fjcb/how...

#Skills #Expertise #Career

How AI Impacts Skill Formation

AI assistance produces significant productivity gains across professional domains, particularly for novice workers. Yet how this assistance affects the development of skills required to effectively su...

arxiv.org

February 1, 2026 at 12:24 PM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

💖🍒🍎🍐:

“Meet The Italian ‘Fruit Detective’ Who Investigates Centuries-Old Paintings For Clues About Produce That Has Disappeared From The Kitchen Table” [2024], Smithsonian Magazine (www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...).

#Fruits #Italy #Painting #Renaissance #Art #Biodiversity

Meet the Italian 'Fruit Detective' Who Investigates Centuries-Old Paintings for Clues About Produce That Has Disappeared From the Kitchen Table

Renaissance paintings, medieval archives, cloistered orchards—how one Italian scientist is uncovering secrets that could help combat a growing agricultural crisis

www.smithsonianmag.com

January 26, 2026 at 9:54 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

“How The Human Brain Contends With The Strangeness Of Zero” [2024], Quanta (www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-huma...).

#Zero #Numbers #Arithmetic #Brain #Math #Mathematics #History #India #Perception #Cognition #Science

How the Human Brain Contends With the Strangeness of Zero | Quanta Magazine

Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how the brain creates something out of nothing.

www.quantamagazine.org

January 26, 2026 at 9:49 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

As a kid, I used to love MAD (& Punch) – here’s an ode to the MAD magazine in its heyday:

“The MAD Files” [2024], Tablet (www.tabletmag.com/sections/art...).

#MAD #Humor #Comics #AlfredENeuman #Magazines #Satire #Funny

The MAD Files

An excerpt from David Mikics’ introduction to ‘The MAD Files: Writers and Cartoonists on the Magazine that Warped America's Brain!’

www.tabletmag.com

January 26, 2026 at 9:43 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

A #review of the #book “The Bookshop: A History Of The American Bookstore” by Evan Friss:

“Bookselling Out” [2024], The Baffler (thebaffler.com/latest/books...).

#Books #BookReviews #Bookselling #Bookshops #Bookstores #Business #Reading #Publishing #Reviews

Bookselling Out | Dan Sinykin

“The Bookshop” tells the story of American bookstores in thirteen types. Its true subject is not how bookstore can survive, but how they should be.

thebaffler.com

January 26, 2026 at 6:41 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

“The Coming Second Copernican Revolution” [2024], Noēma (www.noemamag.com/the-coming-s...).

#Cosmology #AstroBiology #ThePlanetary #Planets #Exoplanets #Science #Life #AlienLife #Copernicus #Stars

The Coming Second Copernican Revolution | NOEMA

Astrobiology is rewiring our understanding of the intimate connection between life and planets as they appear in the universe.

www.noemamag.com

January 26, 2026 at 6:22 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

An #obituary for the remarkable Lewis Lapham, creator of the amazing Lapham’s Quarterly:

“On The Remarkable Legacy Of Lewis Lapham” [2024], Literary Hub (lithub.com/on-the-remar...).

#LewisLapham #LaphamsQuarterly #Writing #Editing #Publishing #Style #Lapham #RIP

On the Remarkable Legacy of Lewis Lapham

You only meet a few people in your life who, like stars, exert a pull so strong that they alter its trajectory completely. I was lucky enough to enter the orbit of the legendary editor and essayist…

lithub.com

January 26, 2026 at 6:13 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

A #review of the #book “Ayn Rand: Writing A Gospel Of Success” by Alexandra Popoff that is more of a commentary on #AynRand than a #BookReview:

“Atlas Schlepped”, Jewish Review Of Books (jewishreviewofbooks.com/literature/1...).

#AtlasShrugged #Books #Reviews #Objectivism #Philosophy

Atlas Schlepped - Jewish Review of Books

Ayn Rand imagined that her romantic prose soared, but it barely schlepped along.

jewishreviewofbooks.com

January 26, 2026 at 5:50 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

Uff! 😰:

“Vimeo's Slow Fade: An Engineer's Front-Row Seat To The Fall Of A Web Icon”, Ben Szymanski (ben1777.substack.com/p/vimeos-slo...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4675...

#Vimeo #Videos #Business #Collapse #Rants #SoftwareEngineering #Management #TrainWreck

Vimeo's Slow Fade: An Engineer's Front-Row Seat to the Fall of a Web Icon

I worked as a staff software engineer for almost three years (2022-2024) at this fallen (but once loved) bedrock of creative online culture. What went wrong?

ben1777.substack.com

January 26, 2026 at 5:30 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

🧬🐁🧑🏼‍🔬:

“Origins Of The Lab Mouse” [2024], Asimov Press (www.asimov.press/p/lab-mouse).

#Genetics #Mendel #LabMouse #Mouse #Experiments #Science

Origins of the Lab Mouse

How the mouse found its way from Victorian novelty to a biomedical mainstay.

www.asimov.press

January 25, 2026 at 3:34 PM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

Pragmatic:

“How I Estimate Work As A Staff Software Engineer”, Sean Goedecke (www.seangoedecke.com/how-i-estima...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4674...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/dspppf/how...

#SoftwareEngineering #Planning #Estimation #StaffEngineer

How I estimate work as a staff software engineer

www.seangoedecke.com

January 25, 2026 at 5:00 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

Impressive that #PostgreSQL scaled so much before #OpenAI had to intervene:

“Scaling PostgreSQL To Power 800 Million ChatGPT Users”, OpenAI (openai.com/index/scalin...).

On HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4672...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/uluua1/sca...

#ChatGPT #Scaling #Databases

Scaling PostgreSQL to power 800 million ChatGPT users

By Bohan Zhang, Member of the Technical Staff

openai.com

January 25, 2026 at 4:12 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

“Explainer: Tree-sitter Vs. LSP”, Ashton Wiersdorf (lambdaland.org/posts/2026-0...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4671...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/qhickw/exp...

#LSP #TreeSitter #LanguageServerProtocol #Editors #SyntaxHighlighting #Parsers #Parsing

Explainer: Tree-sitter vs. LSP

I got asked a good question today: what is the difference between Tree-sitter and a language server? I don’t understand how either of these tools work in depth, so I’m just going to explain from an ob...

lambdaland.org

January 24, 2026 at 10:14 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

Melvyn Bragg has left some really big shoes for Misha Glenny to fill 😬:

“Misha Glenny To present BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time” [2025], BBC (www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...).

#BBC #MelvynBragg #InOurTime #Succession #Podcasts #Radio

Misha Glenny to present BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time

The much loved series returns on 15 January 2026

www.bbc.com

January 24, 2026 at 6:55 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

The auto-correct SNAFUs, the text-selection struggles, and the AirDrop randomness affect me far too often 😒:

“Bugs Apple Loves” (www.bugsappleloves.com).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4672...

#Apple #Apathy #Bugs #iOS #MacOS #iPhone #iPad #MacBook

Bugs Apple Loves

Bugs Apple won't fix. Why else would they keep them around for so long? We did the math.

www.bugsappleloves.com

January 24, 2026 at 2:34 AM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

This is amazing 🤩:

“ASCII Characters Are Not Pixels: A Deep Dive Into ASCII Rendering”, Alex Harri (alexharri.com/blog/ascii-r...).

Via HN: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4665...

On Lobsters: lobste.rs/s/vp39cr/asc...

#Graphics #ASCII #ASCIIArt #GraphicsProgramming #Programming #TUI

ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

A look at how I used shape vectors to achieve sharp, high-quality ASCII rendering.

alexharri.com

January 20, 2026 at 1:40 PM

Ranjit Mathew

@rmathew4bs.bsky.social

Fascinating – I’ve always admired Vermeer’s paintings 🤩:

“A Scientist’s Quest To Decode Vermeer’s True Colours” [2024], The Walrus (thewalrus.ca/a-scientists...).

#Vermeer #Painting #Art #Colors #Pigments #Holland #Masters #TheDutchMasters