HN user
I am so sickened now
Just launched something different (well, not aimed at the HN crowd). Actually one of my better performing sites. It's an iPhone Gossip Browser which builds off our automated news feed aggregation platform.
as I understand it they are using the built in SQLlite aspects of HTML5 for db storage. not sure about your other q's
sounds like webOS is going to be a powerful system. Personally can't wait to see the SDK.
I had always assumed it was setup this way, via an algorithm selecting newsworthy stories with an editor pushing out the best ones, that would at least explain the bias and lack of spam.