3601
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
3602
How Breakfast Became a Thing
Do you think breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Then you fell for an ad campaign designed in 1944 to sell more cereal.
3603
GiveDirectly Planning to Give $30M in Basic Income to East Africa
Money always helps, but for the poorest, one large lump sum can last a long time. A long-term universal basic income also looks promising.
3604
3605
3606
3607
Why Releasing Text Isn't Enough: Behind the Scenes of TTIP
Today the draft text of the U.S.-Europe free trade agreement, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), was leaked by Greenpeace Netherlands. The leak reveals for the first time the current state of the text of 15 chapters and annexes, along with a confidential commentary from the...
3608
High-income Americans pay most income taxes, but enough to be ‘fair’?
By design, wealthier Americans pay most of the nation’s total individual income taxes.
3609
‘Lost’ songs from the Middle Ages are brought back to life
An ancient song repertory will be heard for the first time in 1,000 years this week after being ‘reconstructed’ by a Cambridge researcher and a world-class performer of medieval music
3610
Rule 41 Proposes to Grant New Hacking Powers to the Government
The government hacking into phones and seizing computers remotely? It’s not the plot of a dystopian blockbuster summer movie. It’s a proposal from an obscure committee that proposes changes to court procedures—and if we do nothing, it will go into effect in December. The proposal comes from the...
3611
The Crime of Speech
New EFF Report Maps Legal Threats to Free Expression in the Arab WorldFreedom of expression is a universal right, but the specific threats to it vary widely from country to country and region to region. As activists fighting for free speech worldwide, it is essential that we better understand the...
3612
Note from Mark Zuckerberg
Everything we do at Facebook is focused on our mission to make the world more open and connected.
3613
The impact of Prince’s death on Wikipedia
“Prince is synonymous with indulging in yourself shamelessly and with passion. His music and his cultural impact mean more than words can offer.” “He taught me that being black wa…
3614
Secret Court Takes Another Bite Out of the Fourth Amendment
Defenders of the NSA's mass spying have lost an important talking point: that the erosion of our privacy and associational rights is justified given the focus of surveillance efforts on combating terrorism and protecting the national security. That argument has always been dubious for a number of...
3615
Three teen sisters who win medals in coding competitions
Elene first lit up the path toward coding for her sisters Mari and Ani. We learn how the sisters have achieved so much at such a young age.
3616
Cisco’s Attempt to Dodge Responsibility for Facilitating Human Rights Abuses
Cisco custom-built the so-called “Great Firewall of China,” also known as the “Golden Shield.” This system enables the Chinese government to conduct Internet surveillance and censorship against its citizens. As if that weren’t bad enough, company documents also revealed that, as part of its...
3617
EFF Sues for Court Orders Requiring Tech Cos to Decrypt Users’ Communications
San Francisco—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a Freedom of Information (FOIA) lawsuit today against the Justice Department to shed light on whether the government has ever used secret court orders to force technology companies to decrypt their customers’ private communications, a...
3618
The Real Rates of Business Survival
8 out of 10 businesses successfully survive their first year and increase their chances of survival with every year they stay in business.
3619
White House Source Code Policy a Big Win for Open Government
The U.S. White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is considering a new policy for sharing source code for software created by or for government projects. There’s a lot to love about the proposed policy: it would make it easier for people to find and reuse government software, and...
3620
When Lobbying was Illegal
Although lobbyists' influence seems inevitable, in the 1800s, several states banned lobbying outright.
3621
Keeping secrecy the exception, not the rule
This morning we filed a new lawsuit in federal court against the United States government to stand up for what we believe are our customers’ constitutional and fundamental rights – rights that help protect privacy and promote free expression. This is not a decision we made lightly, and hence we wanted to share…
3622
House Passes Bill to Sabotage Net Neutrality
H.R. 2666 Would Undermine FCC’s Charge to Protect the Open Internet In a disappointing turn of events, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 241 to 173 to pass H.R. 2666, the No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act, a bill that would undermine the FCC’s ability to enforce key net...
3623
Why Thieves Steal Soap
Stealing soap is almost as good as stealing cash.
3624
An MIT Underwear Exposé (and Sorting Hat)
Archived MIT Admissions blog post 'An MIT Underwear Exposé (and Sorting Hat),' published April 11, 2016. Preserved for historical context; not maintained as current admissions policy.
3625
For life expectancy, money matters
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that income is closely correlated with life expectancy, with the richest Americans living as much as 15 years longer than the poorest — and even the poor living longer in wealthy areas.
3626
Online Dating and the Death of the 'Mixed-Attractiveness' Couple
People tend to date people who are just as attractive as they are. And thanks to the rise of online dating, that is only becoming more true.
3627
Guns and suicide: A fatal link
In the United States, suicides outnumber homicides almost two to one. Perhaps the real tragedy behind suicide deaths—about 30,000 a year, one for every 45
3628
3629
WhatsApp Rolls Out End-To-End Encryption to Its Over 1B Users
End-to-end encryption has just gone massively mainstream. In an update on March 31st, the Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp quietly pushed an update adding end-to-end encryption enabled by default to its chat and call functionality. They announced the change publicly on Tuesday, allowing...
3630
