Hacker NewsMonday, October 19

Many suspect an automated ban triggered by mass reporting, citing the 90-minute suspension and quick reversal. Others point to Meta's past political moves and staff cuts, and note the organizers were locked out for hours.

Pele is a zero-dependency library that renders Mermaid diagram syntax into SVG, claiming to be about 6 times smaller and up to 500 times faster than Mermaid.js. It supports every Mermaid 12.1.0 diagram type, lets you theme colors and fonts with CSS variables, and installs via npm. Developed for Obsidian, it is open source.

DeepSeek's Search API and Fetch API give agents and RAG applications access to live web content, using the same bearer authentication as the DeepSeek API. Search returns structured results for a query, with optional page content, while Fetch returns a single page as Markdown. Both are billed at $0.75 per 1,000 successful requests and are limited to 5 QPS per account, with Fetch also subject to a per-domain limit.

Rep. Ritchie Torres introduced the Power To The Players Act, directing the FTC to make rules so buying a game grants ownership rather than a license, and requiring an offline mode before online servers shut down. It follows a similar Pennsylvania bill, as gamers push back against expiring games and Sony's argument that purchases are revocable licenses.

Since October 2025, gold has been America's top export by value, with February 2026 possibly setting a record in tons exported. Most goes to Switzerland, Hong Kong, and the UK. The author speculates much of it ultimately flows to China, which has been shifting reserves from U.S. Treasuries into gold.

The page says the site is committed to safety and security and asks visitors to complete a challenge to verify they are a real person and not a bot.

The writer saw the Elizabeth Holmes documentary "You Can See Everything" and found it a masterpiece of storytelling. Rather than focusing on whether Holmes is a liar, they argue the film manipulates viewers through editing and framing, showing how easily emotions shape beliefs about others.

The author tries to make chicken breast transparent by soaking it in tartrazine, the yellow food dye, to match the water's refractive index to that of proteins and lipids. Partial transparency was achieved at about 0.19 M after 12 hours, though the tissue looked gummy and the 0.56 M solution crystallised.

MapQuest's app has gained popularity after refusing to label Lake Ontario "Lake America" and adding features like Android Auto support and transit directions. Its newest tool is a toggleable layer showing known outdoor surveillance cameras and license plate readers, including Flock and others from companies like Motorola, Axon, and Verkada.

μRepRap is a micron-scale replicating 3D printer built from common materials, using 3D-printed microscope platforms from The OpenFlexure Project. The recommended PIKA version achieves about 1μm repeatability and 10μm accuracy, depositing UV resin droplets as small as 4μm. The project aims to bring micron-scale fabrication to hobbyists and spur new microelectronics and biological research.