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Launch HN: Promi (YC S24) – Personalize e-commerce discounts and retail offers

Hey HN! I’m Peter from Promi. We’re building a platform for ecommerce merchants to send realtime personalized discounts, optimized with AI (obviously) Sales Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiO1S7RBn-o Demo: https://youtu.be/BCYNCqb4fUc Website: www.promi.ai All the big tech companies send personalized discounts - Uber, DoorDash, Google, etc. In fact, I was the product lead overseeing discounts at Uber, so if you’ve gotten a promotion on Uber Rides or Eats, that was our tech. These per

Gardeners Beware: Experts Warn These 9 Poisonous Flowers Might Be in Your Backyard

With summer now well and truly here, you're probably spending more time in your backyard or garden than you would through the rest of the year. The warmer weather also means that new plants and flowers are blooming, and all of that extra color is always welcome, right? But did you know that some plants aren't as safe as they might look? In fact, you might be surprised just how many common plants and flowers could be dangerous to you, your family and even your pets. In this article, we enlist the

Psilocybin decreases depression and anxiety in cancer patients (2016)

Participants with a potentially life-threatening cancer diagnosis and a DSM-IV diagnosis that included anxiety and/or mood symptoms were recruited through flyers, internet, and physician referral. Of 566 individuals who were screened by telephone, 56 were randomized. Figure 1 shows a CONSORT flow diagram. Table 1 shows demographics for the 51 participants who completed at least one session. The two randomized groups did not significantly differ demographically. All 51 participants had a potentia

Nintendo launches another Switch Online test program for 40,000 players

Nintendo has posted a call for participants for another Playtest Program, and this time, it's looking for 40,000 testers and not just 10,000 like in the first one. If you'll recall, Nintendo looked for 10,000 participants for the first Playtest event last year to test an unnamed, mysterious Switch Online feature. The new program still only welcomes active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack members, but as you'd expect, it now supports both the original Switch and the Switch 2. Interested p

Psilocybin produces substantial sustained decreases in depression and anxiety

Participants with a potentially life-threatening cancer diagnosis and a DSM-IV diagnosis that included anxiety and/or mood symptoms were recruited through flyers, internet, and physician referral. Of 566 individuals who were screened by telephone, 56 were randomized. Figure 1 shows a CONSORT flow diagram. Table 1 shows demographics for the 51 participants who completed at least one session. The two randomized groups did not significantly differ demographically. All 51 participants had a potentia

Mammals Evolved into Ant Eaters 12 Times Since Dinosaur Age, Study Finds

Written by: Jesse Jenkins Published: A first-of-its-kind study traces the rise of ant- and termite-eaters, revealing how mammals returned to the evolutionary table — at least a dozen times — to hone traits for feasting on the social insect bonanza that exploded after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar — a taste

More Apple chips to be made in US as TSMC accelerates Arizona plants

More Apple chips are set to be made in the US as TSMC said it is busy accelerating the construction of its second and third Arizona plants, fulfilling a promise made back in March. The chipmaker is bringing more advanced processes to the US earlier than initially expected, allowing it to make chips for more recent Apple products … ‘Made in America’ Apple chips Apple first announced its plan for ‘Made in America’ chips back in 2022, with the news hailed as one of the success stories of the US

Five companies now control over 90% of the restaurant food delivery market

While reading the latest results from Prosus, I realized there seems to be a trend that nobody is talking about. There is an obvious wave of consolidation in the food delivery market happening right before our eyes. The once-hot food delivery sector has gone cold faster than your DoorDash order. New entrants have disappeared as most of the VC money chases the cool and hip AI startups. Alongside a wave of acquisitions, the world's food delivery market is consolidating in the hands of 5 companies.

Major US power operator says AI and data center demands are pushing prices up

PJM Interconnection (PJM) is the largest power grid operator in the US, serving 65 million customers across the District of Columbia and 13 states, namely Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. But this summer, some parts of PJM's power grid are expected to use so much electricity that people's bills for the summer are projected to be 20 percent higher than before, according to Reuters. Th

“Things we’ll never know” science fair highlights US’s canceled research

Washington, DC—From a distance, the gathering looked like a standard poster session at an academic conference, with researchers standing next to large displays of the work they were doing. Except in this case, it was taking place in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, and the researchers were describing work that they weren’t doing. Called "The things we’ll never know," the event was meant to highlight the work of researchers whose grants had been canceled by the Trump administrat

“Things we’ll never know” science fair highlights US’ canceled research

Washington, DC — From a distance, the gathering looked like a standard poster session at an academic conference, with researchers standing next to large displays of the work they were doing. Except in this case, it was taking place in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, and the researchers were describing work that they weren’t doing. Called "The things we’ll never know," the event was meant to highlight the work of researchers whose grants had been canceled by the Trump administr

Using MPC for Anonymous and Private DNA Analysis

Earlier this year, Monadic DNA kicked off an experiment to demonstrate that people can access and analyze their genetic data with anonymity and privacy. Monadic DNA collected saliva samples from thirty encrypted genomics pioneers at an event in Denver. These participants later used a Web app to claim their genotyping results using a unique kit ID and a self-selected PIN. The app guided users through uploading their data to encrypted storage powered by Nillion’s multi-party compute (MPC) techno

New study offers clues about what makes someone cool

Is there a secret sauce that helps explain why people as different as David Bowie, Samuel L. Jackson and Charli XCX all seem so self-assured and, well, cool? A new study suggests that there are six specific traits that these people tend to have in common: Cool people are largely perceived to be extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous. The study, which was published on Monday in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, surveyed nearly 6,000 participants from

Stalking the Statistically Improbable Restaurant with Data

Last summer, I wrote about the statistically improbable restaurant, the restaurant you wouldn’t expect to find in a small American city: the excellent Nepali food in Erie, PA and Akron, OH; a gem of a Gambian restaurant in Springfield, IL. Statistically improbable restaurants often tell you something about the communities they are based in: Erie and Akron have large Lhotshampa refugee populations, Nepali-speaking people who lived in Bhutan for years before being expelled from their county; Sprin

There's no such thing as a tree (phylogenetically) (2021)

So you’ve heard about how fish aren’t a monophyletic group? You’ve heard about carcinization, the process by which ocean arthropods convergently evolve into crabs? You say you get it now? Sit down. Sit down. Shut up. Listen. You don’t know nothing yet. “Trees” are not a coherent phylogenetic category. On the evolutionary tree of plants, trees are regularly interspersed with things that are absolutely, 100% not trees. This means that, for instance, either: The common ancestor of a maple and a m

Robinhood expands its global push, minutes from crypto chief's old cramped apartment in Cannes

CANNES — Fifteen years after flipping burgers at a McDonald 's and teaching himself to code at night in a cramped apartment near the French Riviera, Robinhood crypto chief Johann Kerbrat is back. The last time he lived around Cannes, he was 21 — with no connections, no funding, and no formal business training. But he had a knack for programming and a drive to solve real-world problems. Kerbrat, who is now senior vice president and crypto GM at Robinhood, quit his job just before starting unive

AlphaGenome: AI for Better Understanding the Genome

Science AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome Share Copy link × Introducing a new, unifying DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction and promises to shed new light on genome function — now available via API. The genome is our cellular instruction manual. It’s the complete set of DNA which guides nearly every part of a living organism, from appearance and function to growth and reproduction. Small variations in a genome’s DNA sequence can alter a

AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome

Science AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome Share Copy link × Introducing a new, unifying DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction and promises to shed new light on genome function — now available via API. The genome is our cellular instruction manual. It’s the complete set of DNA which guides nearly every part of a living organism, from appearance and function to growth and reproduction. Small variations in a genome’s DNA sequence can alter a

Google DeepMind Releases AlphaGenome

Science AlphaGenome: AI for better understanding the genome Share Copy link × Introducing a new, unifying DNA sequence model that advances regulatory variant-effect prediction and promises to shed new light on genome function — now available via API. The genome is our cellular instruction manual. It’s the complete set of DNA which guides nearly every part of a living organism, from appearance and function to growth and reproduction. Small variations in a genome’s DNA sequence can alter a

AI is ruining houseplant communities online

“Maybe you could organize your plants like this,” my friend’s text message said, with an attached photo of white pots of plants floating midair in front of a huge, sunny window. As a newbie plant collector, I do need to organize my growing collection of flora, but not like this — the photo was AI-generated and the plants depicted were not real. Even as a beginner, I was able to identify issues with the photo. Obviously, my plants cannot physically defy gravity, but most egregiously, the organiz

'Sticky thinking' hampers decisions in depression

Though low mood is the best-known symptom of depression, indecisiveness and biased thinking are also common. But these problems, which can lead to delays in making important choices — and being more likely to make poor ones — receive less attention, write the authors of a recent paper in Emotion. Many of the theories that have been put forward to explain difficulties with decision-making are based on work suggesting that depressed people are not as responsive to rewards, or punishments, as thos

Study shows gaming can reduce stress, even the violent kind

Editor's take: Violent video games have long been blamed as the source of many societal problems. However, an increasing number of studies continue to show that gaming poses no significant threat to society or human health, and the latest adds an interesting new perspective to the ongoing debate. A recently published study aims to dispel yet another myth about video games, showing that both violent and non-violent gaming sessions can effectively reduce stress levels. The research centers on A P

Applying to Jobs Has Become an AI-Powered Wasteland

If you’re one of millions of job seekers struggling to find stable employment, just know it’s probably not you. With the onslaught of so-called "generative AI" — Silicon Valley’s term for complex prediction algorithms that can be used to create new content based on vast amounts of material that they gathered without the permission of its creators — the job search has become a veritable gauntlet of fake job listings, automated application bots, and computer-generated interviews. Though it’s onl

Study Says U.S. Babies Are Missing a Key Gut Microbe, Fueling Allergy Risk

The prevalence of allergies and other chronic diseases is on the rise, with the number of food allergy cases in the U.S. increasing 50% between 2007 and 2021. These allergies can be life-threatening, and understanding their root cause is more important than ever before. A new study has brought experts closer to doing just that. The findings, published Tuesday, June 24 in the journal Communications Biology, linked the rise of allergies and other chronic conditions such as asthma and eczema to th

What would happen if you tried to land on a gas giant?

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Email address Sign up Thank you! Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Our solar system contains three types of planets. Between the four terrestrial planets–Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars–and the distant ice giants of Neptune and Uranus, sit two gas giants: Saturn and Jupiter. These planets are mostly composed of hydrogen and helium gas. Researchers now appreciate that gas planets are more c

MIT brain scans suggest that using GenAI tools reduces cognitive activity

Why it matters: As the use of generative AI becomes increasingly common in education, law, politics, media, and other fields, many worry that reliance on the technology may reduce cognitive independence. A recent study from MIT strongly supports this concern, indicating that the use of digital tools significantly alters brain activity. The newly published paper explains that as participants in an experiment wrote a series of essays, electronic brain monitoring revealed substantially weaker conn

Android may soon recommend you use an ‘optimized’ voice assistant — here’s what that really means

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR OEMs can now highlight specific digital assistants as “optimized” for their Android devices in the default app settings. Google says it created the feature at an OEM’s request so OEMs can recommend assistants verified to work with their first-party applications. While Google says it won’t do this on its own Pixel phones, the feature comes as the company is facing growing regulatory pressure. For many years, Google Assistant was widely seen as the best

Take Us North Kickstarter campaign launches for game about crossing the U.S.-Mexico border

Anima Interactive has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its game, Take Us North, about the experiences of migrants and asylum seekers on crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Take Us North is an adventure/survival game that follows the journeys of migrants and asylum seekers on their way to cross the US-Mexico border. It’s about the human story behind the politics and headlines, and stories about what the actual crossing is like. The game has raised $12,000 to date and is targeting hitting $30,000

How you breathe is like a fingerprint that can identify you

Every breath you take ... could add to a breathing pattern that is unique to you, a study finds.Credit: Anusak Laowilas/NurPhoto via Getty Like the swirls in fingerprints, a person’s breathing pattern might be unique to them — offering a way not only to identify individuals, but also to identify some of their physical and mental traits. A team of researchers measured the breathing of 97 healthy people for 24 hours, and found that they could identify participants with relatively high accuracy f

New COVID variant swiftly gains ground in US; concern looms for summer wave

While COVID-19 transmission remains low in the US, health experts are anxious about the potential for a big summer wave as two factors seem set for a collision course: a lull in infection activity that suggests protective responses have likely waned in the population, and a new SARS-CoV-2 variant with an infectious advantage over other variants. The new variant is dubbed NB.1.8.1. Like all the other currently circulating variants, it's a descendant of omicron. Specifically, NB.1.8.1 is derived