"Mamdani effect" is seeing more people moving to New York, not leaving it
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 21158 |
Comments: 471
Contrary to predictions of a 'Mamdani effect' that would drive wealthy New Yorkers to flee following Zohran Mamdani's mayoral election, data shows luxury home sales in the city increased significantly a month after his victory. Real estate experts attribute the strong market to robust Wall Street compensation and stock market performance, not political fears. The anticipated mass exodus to states like Florida appears to be unfounded hype.
Key Points:
Luxury home sales in NYC (properties over $4M) rose by 25-31% in November after Mamdani's election, contradicting predictions of an exodus.
Real estate experts dismiss the 'Mamdani effect,' stating the market strength is due to high Wall Street compensation and a strong stock market.
The predicted flight of wealthy residents to Florida was based on fears of higher taxes but has not materialized.
Some buyers initially paused searches due to headlines but quickly re-entered the market, indicating a knee-jerk reaction.
The article frames the 'Mamdani effect' as wishful thinking by Florida realtors and disgruntled New York landlords.
""This notion that people are going to flee New York because they don't like the mayor is pretty ridiculous," Donna Olshan, president and founder of Olshan Realty, told Newsweek."
New photos released from Epstein’s estate showing Trump, Bannon, Bill Clinton and other high-profile people
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 9924 |
Comments: 596
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released 19 photos from Jeffrey Epstein's estate, showing the late sex trafficker with numerous high-profile figures including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson. The images reinforce Epstein's extensive ties to powerful individuals, though many of the relationships were previously known.
Key Points:
Photos released by House Oversight Democrats show Epstein with figures like Trump, Clinton, Bannon, Gates, and Branson.
One photo shows Trump with six women whose faces were redacted by the committee.
Another image shows novelty condoms featuring a caricature of Trump's face.
The collection of 19 images underscores the breadth of Epstein's connections to powerful people.
Other individuals pictured include former Harvard President Larry Summers and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
"Taken collectively, the 19 images – which the Democrats on the committee said came from Epstein’s estate – reinforce the financier was tied in the past to a wide variety of powerful and high-profile people whose ties to him are now under significant scrutiny."
House Democrats release new Epstein photos featuring Trump
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 6856 |
Comments: 254
House Democrats on the Oversight Committee released a set of previously unseen photos from Jeffrey Epstein's estate featuring prominent figures, including former President Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Bill Gates. The release is part of an ongoing investigation, with Democrats calling for full transparency and Republicans dismissing it as a politically motivated 'hoax.'
Key Points:
Democrats released photos showing Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates, and Woody Allen with Epstein or in social settings.
The photos are a small portion of over 95,000 images obtained via subpoena from the Epstein estate.
Democrats argue the photos raise questions and demand the DOJ release all files, framing it as ending a 'cover-up.'
Republicans criticized the release as a 'cherry-picked' headline chase and stated nothing shows wrongdoing by Trump.
Committee Democrats indicated more disturbing photos exist but require Republican cooperation for further subpoenas.
""It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends," said the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. "These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world.""
Sorry, but You Had to Be an Idiot to Believe Trump Could Lower Prices | The president’s disastrous affordability rally merely re-raises the question: How could anyone have fallen for his campaign promises in the first place?
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 5188 |
Comments: 475
The article argues that voters who believed Donald Trump's campaign promise to quickly lower prices were naive, as presidents lack the unilateral power to control inflation. It contends that Trump's tariffs have actually raised prices and that his history of business failures and dishonesty should have made his claims unbelievable.
Key Points:
Presidents do not have the power to unilaterally and quickly lower prices, making Trump's promises unrealistic.
Trump's tariffs have contributed to price increases, contrary to his affordability pledges.
The author believes many voters ignored Trump's history of dishonesty and business failures.
The right-wing media ecosystem is blamed for amplifying Trump's false promises and drowning out critical voices.
A double standard exists where such unrealistic economic claims would be widely mocked if made by a Democratic candidate.
"But mostly, they’re up because politicians, even presidents, don’t have the power to lower prices quickly and unilaterally."
Trump Hit With Massive Lawsuit Over His Tacky Ballroom | Donald Trump is being sued for destroying the White House to build his gaudy ballroom.
Posted on r/politics |
Score: 3963 |
Comments: 112
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, alleging he lacks constitutional authority to fast-track the construction of a massive, privately funded ballroom on White House grounds. The lawsuit argues the project violates federal laws and procedures, and its development has been marked by misleading statements, ballooning costs, and conflicts with architects.
Key Points:
A lawsuit alleges Trump violated the Administrative Procedures Act and National Environmental Policy Act by fast-tracking a $300 million ballroom on federal land without proper authority.
The project has faced criticism for its scale, which would overshadow the White House, and for Trump's misleading claims about its cost and impact on the original structure.
Trump cleared the way for the project by firing members of the Commission on Fine Arts, though their seats remain unfilled.
The ballroom's funding presents opportunities for wealthy families and corporations to curry favor with the administration.
The article frames the ballroom as part of a broader pattern of Trump prioritizing vanity projects over governing and historic preservation.
"Trump has repeatedly turned his attention away from actually governing to the destruction of American landmarks."
The author rigorously tested several leading AI models on a complex task of analyzing PDFs and extracting structured data from bureaucratic documents. Only Opus 4.5 consistently succeeded, while competitors like Gemini 3, ChatGPT 5.1/5.2, and Kimi K2 failed due to soft refusals, incomplete work, or inconsistency. The author concludes that Opus 4.5 is uniquely effective and worth the cost.
Key Points:
Opus 4.5 was the only AI model to successfully and repeatedly complete a complex PDF analysis task.
Competitors like Gemini 3 and ChatGPT 5.1/5.2 failed by delivering incomplete work or falsely reporting completion.
Kimi K2 showed inconsistent performance, forgetting prompt directives after a few messages.
The author's testing was based on a single, primitive prompt, highlighting Opus 4.5's superior capability.
The author is convinced of Opus 4.5's value and is willing to pay for it.
"Opus 4.5 is the only one, I repeat, the only one, to do the job, even based on a single primitive prompt. Repeatedly. And successfully."
Anyone else get sudden waves of motivation to improve their setup… at the worst possible times?
Posted on r/selfhosted |
Score: 351 |
Comments: 71
The author humorously describes experiencing sudden, intense urges to reorganize their technical setup at inconvenient moments, like while in bed or at work. They question whether this is a common phenomenon among self-hosting enthusiasts or a personal quirk.
Key Points:
The author experiences sudden waves of motivation to improve their technical setup.
These urges occur at inconvenient times, such as while lying in bed or during work.
The author questions if this is a universal experience among peers.
The focus is on reorganizing a 'homelab' or self-hosted infrastructure.
The tone is self-aware and humorous about this potentially counterproductive impulse.
"I’ll be lying in bed or in the middle of work and suddenly think, “I should totally reorganize my entire homelab tonight.”"
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 348 |
Comments: 228
The article argues that while AI can automate the task of writing code, it cannot replace the core responsibilities of a software engineer, which involve judgment, understanding requirements, and making strategic decisions. The author points to major AI companies acquiring engineering talent as evidence that the value lies in human expertise, not just code generation. The future belongs to engineers who leverage AI as a tool while focusing on the higher-level thinking that defines their role.
Key Points:
AI automates the task of programming, but programming is not the same as the job of a software engineer.
The real job involves judgment, understanding vague requirements, making trade-offs, and strategic decision-making.
AI companies are acquiring top engineering talent, proving they value human expertise over pure automation.
Engineers who focus on non-programming skills and leverage AI as a tool will thrive, while those who only output code are at risk.
AI compresses the feedback loop for learning, potentially helping juniors develop judgment faster, not hindering them.
"Programming isn’t the job. Programming is a task. It’s one of many things you do as part of your work. But if you’re a software engineer, your actual job is more than typing code into an editor."
Pangolin 1.13.0: We built a zero-trust VPN! The open-source alternative to Twingate.
Posted on r/selfhosted |
Score: 290 |
Comments: 77
Pangolin 1.13.0 introduces a zero-trust VPN for private remote access, positioning itself as an open-source alternative to Twingate and Cloudflare ZTNA. It uses a hub-and-spoke model where clients connect to sites running the Newt connector to access defined resources, with native apps for Windows and Mac and a CLI for Linux.
Key Points:
Introduces a zero-trust VPN for private, identity-aware remote access to defined network resources.
Uses a hub-and-spoke model, differing from mesh networks by focusing on users, sites, and resources without peer-to-peer ACLs.
Provides native GUI clients for Windows and Mac, with a CLI for Linux (Android/iOS/GUI Linux planned).
Features include role-based access, whole network access via CIDRs, magic DNS aliases, and NAT hole-punching.
Includes a security notice urging users to update to version 1.12.3+ to patch a critical React RCE vulnerability (CVE-2025-55182).
"With Pangolin, we have a more traditional hub-and-spoke VPN model where each site represents an entire network of resources clients can connect to. Clients don't talk to each other and there are no ACLs; rather, you give specific users and roles access to resources on the site’s network."
ChatGPT 5.2 Tested: How Developers Rate the New Update (Another Marketing Hype?)
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 142 |
Comments: 82
OpenAI released ChatGPT 5.2 in December 2025, featuring three specialized models (Instant, Thinking, Pro) with improvements in accuracy, vision, and context retention. Developers tested the update, noting significant gains in coding and math benchmarks, though API costs increased. The article explores whether the rushed release, reportedly in response to Google's Gemini 3, represents a real advancement or just marketing hype.
Key Points:
GPT-5.2 has three versions: Instant for everyday tasks, Thinking for complex projects like coding, and Pro for maximum accuracy.
Key improvements include 30% fewer hallucinations, significantly better vision for interpreting charts, and near-perfect context retention in conversations.
The GPT-5.2 Thinking model showed strong performance on coding benchmarks (80% on SWE-bench Verified) and expert-level math (40.3% on FrontierMath).
API costs increased by 40% over GPT-5.1, with GPT-5.2 Pro being particularly expensive.
The release was reportedly rushed in response to Google's Gemini 3 topping rankings, though OpenAI executives denied this, stating it was planned.
"Even without the ability to do new things like output polished files, GPT-5.2 feels like the biggest upgrade we've had in a long time. Curious to hear what you think!"
One Big Server Is Probably Enough: Why You Don't Need the Cloud for Most Things
Posted on r/selfhosted |
Score: 35 |
Comments: 24
The article argues that for most software applications, a single powerful, modern server is sufficient and more cost-effective than complex, distributed cloud infrastructure. It highlights the immense capabilities and reliability of contemporary hardware, suggesting that over-engineering is often unnecessary.
Key Points:
Modern servers are extremely powerful, with capabilities like 128+ cores and petabytes of storage, rivaling supercomputers from the early 2000s.
A single server can handle massive workloads, such as 500,000+ HTTP requests per second, which exceeds the needs of most web applications.
Enterprise-grade hardware and modern software (like Linux, Docker) provide high reliability and uptime, making single-server setups robust.
Using one big server instead of distributed cloud infrastructure can save thousands of dollars and simplify operations.
The industry is often conditioned by cloud marketing to over-engineer solutions from the start, when simpler infrastructure would suffice.
"In the world of software engineering, there's an unspoken assumption that scaling means going distributed. That growth requires Kubernetes clusters spanning multiple regions. That 'production-ready' means a fleet of microservices orchestrated by expensive cloud infrastructure. But here's the thing: most of us don't need any of that."
How does Georgism deal with discovery of mineral deposits?
Posted on r/georgism |
Score: 20 |
Comments: 76
The article explores a practical challenge in Georgist theory: how to handle the discovery of valuable mineral deposits on private land without discouraging the upfront investment required for exploration. It uses the example of a mining company spending millions to discover gold, only to face a high Land Value Tax (LVT) on the now-valuable land. The core question is whether a high LVT would remove the economic incentive for companies to conduct risky and costly surveys in the first place.
Key Points:
A real-world example is given where a mining company discovered $9 billion in gold after investing millions in surveying.
Georgism would apply a high Land Value Tax (LVT) on the land due to the discovered gold's value.
A central concern is that this high tax could disincentivize the risky upfront investment in exploration.
The article seeks solutions or ideas on reconciling the reward for discovery with Georgist tax principles.
"With a LVT applied, wouldn't it no longer be economical to survey if you are going to incur huge costs as soon as something is discovered?"
Building a multiplayer game with polyglot microservices - Architecture decisions and lessons learned [Case Study, Open Source]
Posted on r/programming |
Score: 16 |
Comments: 2
The article appears to be a placeholder or loading page for a GitLab repository named 'account-java-version' within the 'Robin / CodeNames' project. No substantive content is present beyond the title and a loading indicator.
Key Points:
The page is for a GitLab repository titled 'account-java-version'.
The repository is part of a project owned by a user named Robin, called 'CodeNames'.
The main content area is in a loading state with no further details available.
The page structure suggests it is intended to display project files.
No actual code, documentation, or article content is provided to summarize.
"Files · account-java-version · Robin / CodeNames · GitLab Loading"
The article outlines the design philosophy behind the fish shell, which prioritizes user-friendliness, expressiveness, and adherence to POSIX standards where possible. It details several core design principles aimed at creating an intuitive and responsive shell, including orthogonality, responsiveness, and a strong bias against excessive configurability.
Key Points:
Fish aims to be user-friendly without sacrificing expressiveness, and follows POSIX standards when it doesn't conflict with its primary goals.
The 'law of orthogonality' states the shell should have a small set of powerful, general features to avoid redundancy and complexity.
The 'law of responsiveness' mandates the shell remain responsive, performing tasks like syntax highlighting asynchronously.
'Configurability is the root of all evil' argues that options represent a failure to intelligently determine user needs and create maintenance burdens.
The 'law of user focus' dictates that user interface design should precede implementation considerations.
"Configurability is the root of all evil. Every configuration option in a program is a place where the program is too stupid to figure out for itself what the user really wants, and should be considered a failure of both the program and the programmer who implemented it."
The article traces the 50-year history of LCF-style proof assistants, beginning with Edinburgh LCF in 1975, which established core principles like a secure proof kernel and the ML metalanguage. It highlights the evolution through systems like Cambridge LCF and HOL, leading to practical applications in hardware verification and the eventual formalization of deep mathematical theorems.
Key Points:
Edinburgh LCF (1975) introduced the foundational LCF-style architecture: a secure proof kernel enforced by ML's type system, ensuring theorems could only be generated via valid inferences.
Key design principles from Edinburgh LCF, such as natural deduction rules, goal-directed proof, and structured theories, remain influential in modern proof assistants.
The development of faster ML compilers in Cambridge LCF enabled systems like HOL88, making practical hardware verification a reality.
Early systems were limited in expressive power (lacking full first-order logic and basic mathematics), but steady progress allowed for increasingly complex verifications.
The field evolved from being considered marginal to achieving significant milestones, including the formalization of deep mathematical results like the Prime Number Theorem.
"the ML type discipline is used… so that—whatever complex procedures are defined—all values of type thm must be theorems, as only inferences can compute such values…. This security releases us from the need to preserve whole proofs… — an important practical gain since large proofs tended to clog up the working space…"