Hacker News: culi

New comment by culi in "4 things to know about the new sunscreen ingredient the FDA approved"

culi — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:53:27 +0000

The large physical size of the compound means it has trouble passing through biological membranes. This is why it has really low toxicity and doesn't bioaccumulate despite the fact that it doesn't biodegrade over time.

It does seem to accumulate on lake and ocean floors though. I think the larger concern is not on human or animal health but on long term ecological consequences which are harder to study

New comment by culi in "4 things to know about the new sunscreen ingredient the FDA approved"

culi — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:50:51 +0000

Synthesized from hydroxyphenyl-triazines (HPTs). HPTs were invented to protect materials like automotive paints, aerospace coatings, and heavy-duty plastics from solar degradation.

It doesn't seem to bioaccumulate in marine organisms despite the fact that it doesn't biodegrade. This seems to be due to the sheer size of the compound making it not easily cross the biological membranes. It does however accumulate on lake and ocean bed sediments so there are still some long term concerns.

Overall it's environmental profile seems like a huge step up from previous classes of sunscreen chemicals but it's not perfect either.

New comment by culi in "I indexed 669 GB of my GoPro videos using my M1 Max computer and local ML models"

culi — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:35:32 +0000

The title should link to the "full article". I wonder if OP's domain name is banned or something and they're doing this to get around it

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 16:31:53 +0000

It's a compilation of the science around every ingredient. And the most in-depth one at that

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:49:21 +0000

the EWG's sunscreen reviews are quite in depth fwiw. They even assess the "data availability" of each ingredient

https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/best-sunscreens/best-beach-spo...

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:46:30 +0000

This truly is the biggest drawbacks. It's almost impossible to make zinc sunscreen see-through. One technique is to micronize the zinc but this comes with its own set of risks including skin penetration and environmental risks that micronized zinc can pose to aquatic life.

I think the only solution is to embrace it. There isn't really a 100% safe sunscreen that is also invisible

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:42:02 +0000

Maybe more relevant is "Engineer syndrome" — the tendency of technically minded individuals to assume that their expertise in one area makes them an authority on everything

See also Nobel Disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_disease

I think the problem overall is just that we live in a society that conditions us to get validation from the size of our paychecks. Software engineers get a fat paycheck and think "well I must be really smart. Why else would society compensate me like this?". I'm sure it's a problem in all sorts of highly-paid fields. I'm always shocked by how many physicians I see write massively ambitious, terribly researched generalizations (see Jared Diamond and the experts in relevant fields that will spend the rest of their lives dispelling myths he spread)

New comment by culi in "Claude Fable 5: mid-tier results on coding tasks"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:27:19 +0000

In that case, your original description of "basically consisted of applying the same steps and rules n times" was misleading.

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:33:50 +0000

What specific consumer protections are you referencing?

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:32:23 +0000

I'd say dermatology, nutrition/dietetics, and phytopathology are 3 of the worst fields in this regard. I don't think we're fully over the sugar lobby's stranglehold on relevant science and I think the glyphosate lobby's hold is even stronger than that was. How many times are we gonna go through these crises and not reform the way we do and fund science?

New comment by culi in "European sunscreens are safer than American (2024)"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 16:29:31 +0000

Frankly, the field of dermatology is so captured by corporations that my confidence is hardly raised when I see a degree in that field.

Is there a term for regulatory capture but for academia? Like "academic capture"?

New comment by culi in "Waymo Premier"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 03:32:20 +0000

A riot is the voice of the unheard

New comment by culi in "A greyscale iPhone setup that works in everyday life"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:53:30 +0000

I do this too but often forget to turn it back on when I need it off (e.g. for maps or for looking at a picture)

New comment by culi in "Waymo Premier"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:45:53 +0000

Except in this case, damaging cars belonging to Google—a collaborator with ICE—is the point. It's more comparable to people who were damaging Tesla vehicles or the Tyre Extinguishers in the UK than the very common tactic of halting traffic/economic activity to threaten "business as usual"

New comment by culi in "Claude Fable 5: mid-tier results on coding tasks"

culi — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 01:40:38 +0000

> that basically consisted of applying the same steps and rules n times.

Why use a non-deterministic, possibly hallucinatory, definitely expensive, LLM when it sounds like a codemod is the perfect solution for this?

New comment by culi in "EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices"

culi — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 23:17:24 +0000

Biodynamic at least requires farms to produce their own fertilizers. For that reason alone I try to buy it. Fertilizer dependency will be the end of us

I ignore all the magic stuff (in fact, if you have some spiritual devotion to the food you're growing I think that's just fine)

New comment by culi in "It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12"

culi — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:55:19 +0000

Sure, but a 6/10 for "the most repairable macbook in 14 years" is still a 6/10. Lenovo ThinkPads range from 8-10 and even the Microsoft Surface 7 got an 8

New comment by culi in "Waymo Premier"

culi — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 22:45:22 +0000

Waymo was a target during the anti-ICE protests because of Google's collaboration with ICE. In addition, Waymo is seen as a symbol of the gentrification problem.

Agree or disagree with it, my point is that that xkcd doesn't take into account political motivations

New comment by culi in "Car headlights don't have to be this blinding"

culi — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:14:22 +0000

The larger contrast of very bright lights can actually make visibility worse. In urban planning it's well known that having more smaller lights is always best for safety and visibility than having a few very powerful ones. I'm not sure how that can translate to car headlights but certainly we're all less safe when car headlights are blinding everyone and SUVs with comically tall bonnets are becoming the norm in the US

New comment by culi in "Pokémon Go Scans Trained the Navigation Tech for Military Drones"

culi — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 20:06:58 +0000

Yeah but which use has more research funding behind it? We've always prioritized military uses and tech. The research landscape isn't flat.