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New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
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Positive news from 2023
Many bad things happened in 2023. You already know them. Many tragic events were so terrible we will never forget them and we shouldn’t. You can easily find them all over the news. But the good things that happened are much harder to encounter, and it is easy to get the impression nothing good happened at all. In…
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A closer look at the Tabula Peutingeriana
This map story is about one specific map, the only one remaining from the Roman …
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Stupid Patent of the Month: Selfie Contests
Patents are supposed to be an incentive to invent. Too often, they end up being a way to try to claim “ownership” of what should be basic building blocks of human activity, culture, and knowledge. This is especially true of software patents, an area EFF has been speaking out about for more than 20...
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Unblocking User Freedom: the right to use adblockers
Companies increasingly aim to control how users interact with their content online, threatening user freedom. As more companies crack down on browser exten...
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Bill Watterson Commencement Speech (1990)
A speech Bill Watterson gave at Kenyon College, Gambier Ohio, to the 1990 graduating class.
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The Limits to Growth (1972)
The complete original Limits to Growth study is now freely accessible online, thanks to the Donella Meadows Institute and the Dartmouth College Library.
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The right to use adblockers
Companies increasingly aim to control how users interact with their content online, threatening user freedom. As more companies crack down on browser exten...
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High U.S. Health Care Spending
Administrative costs, prescription drugs, and physician and nurse wages may contribute to excess health spending in the U.S., compared with peer nations.
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What's next for Tor and privacy online?
Ten years ago, Edward Snowden shared documents with the press that exposed the extent of the U.S. government’s mass surveillance program – and used Tor to protect himself while doing so. How has the perception of privacy changed since then, and what are the Tor Project’s challenges for the year to come?
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The Inner Ring (1944)
When Boris entered the room, Prince Andrey was listening to an old general, wearing his decorations, who was reporting something to Prince Andrey, with an expression of soldierly servility on his purple face. “Alright. Please wait!” he said to the general, speaking in Russian with the French accent which he used when…
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New PFAS discovered with novel testing method
The “forever chemicals” found in the Cape Fear River were detected through a non-targeted testing method developed at UNC-Chapel Hill that broadens researchers’ abilities to identify the hazardous compounds.
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Mickey, Disney, and the public domain: A 95-year love triangle
Center for the Study of the Public Domain2023368 points208 commentsSociety, Policy & Culture details
Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle by Jennifer Jenkins, Director, Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain On January 1, 2024, after almost a century of copyright protection, Mickey Mouse, or at least a version of Mickey Mouse, will enter the United States public domain. The first…
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The Final Speech from The Great Dictator (1940)
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s…
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Today Is One of the Biggest Surveillance Votes. Will the FBI Stop Spying?
FISA Reform §702 Is a Threat to Democracy At Home and Abroad.
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The House Intelligence Committee's Surveillance 'Reform' Bill Is a Farce
Two bills reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are headed to the House floor. Meanwhile, FBI agents have used Section 702 databases to conduct millions of invasive searches for Americans’ communications, including those of protesters, racial justice activists, 19,000 donors to a…
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FISA "reform" bill would greatly expand the entities forced to surveil users
Yesterday the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence unanimously approved the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023 (FRRA), which would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA 702). The full House is expected to vote on this bill next Tuesday. Like other competing…
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The surprising connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity
Slack’s Workforce Index uncovers new findings on how to structure the workday to maximise employee productivity, well-being and satisfaction
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A connection between after-hours work and decreased productivity
Slack’s Workforce Index uncovers new findings on how to structure the workday to maximize employee productivity, well-being and satisfaction
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TACF is no longer supporting development of D58 American chestnut trees
In December 2023, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) withdrew its support for SUNY-ESF’s Darling transgenic chestnut project. Since then, we’ve received questions about the decision and what’s next for the Darling line. We appreciate those questions because they indicate a deep interest in our mission and reflect…
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Double Standards
Once people had recovered from the shock of seeing both a power button and a real-time clock on a Raspberry Pi, one of the most commented-on features of the new platform was the small, vertical, 16-way FFC (Flat Flexible Cable) connector on the left-hand side of the board, which exposes a single-lane PCI Express…
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Quad9 wins appeal against Sony
A public and free DNS service for a better security and privacy
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An Open Letter to the Python Software Foundation
Dear PSF, We, organisers in the pan-African Python community, would like to raise some concerns and frustrations that have been brought to a...
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DoorDash raises minimum pay to $29.93 per hour in NYC
Changes will allow us to better balance the impact of bad policies in NYC for everyone who uses our platform and continue providing the best possible experience.
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Large shares of consumers use social media out of a fear of missing out
In many contexts, the individual value from consuming a product or service increases as more people consume it. The more of your peers who join TikTok, for example, the more value you probably see in joining yourself. Building on this logic, it’s possible that products like social media not only offer greater utility…
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The Fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can't ignore
Björn Brembs argues that learned societies should lead developments on federated social media platforms, such as Mastodon.
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