1
Education shouldn't be held for ransom
Google told K-12 schools they could turn off AI, but only if they gave up search too. That isn’t integration. It’s holding education for ransom.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
2
Verification Is Not Knowledge: Science needs more than answers
Science needs more than answers
3
Distinct cellular and genetic differences in colorectal cancer in young patients
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers, along with Mass General Brigham researchers from the Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, and the Broad Institute, have uncovered biological clues to why colorectal cancer can behave more aggressively in younger people. Published today in Nature Medicine, the…
4
US boy names that became girl names and vice versa
Explore 125 baby names that shifted between boys and girls, from Leslie to Ashley. See how each one’s split between boys and girls changed from 1936 to 2025.
5
Brazilian Court Sanctions Lawyers for Prompt Injection in Court Filing
Two lawyers hid a white-on-white instruction inside a court filing telling the AI to go easy on their case. The court's AI caught it. The fine was $16,000.
6
7
Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet’s revenue
Search was 49.7% of Alphabet's revenue in Q3 2026, down from 62% in early 2019, as Google Cloud grew much faster. Every quarter since 2018, from Alphabet's earnings releases.
8
How Google determines the names for bodies of water in Google Earth (2008)
Posted by Andrew McLaughlin, Director of Global Public Policy Hundreds of millions of users around the world use Google Earth . Many of the...
9
10
Richest 0.1% (8M) produce more carbon pollution than 3.5B
The world’s richest 0.1 percent (8 million people) produces more carbon pollution than the world’s poorest 3.5 billion people combined, reveals new Oxfam analysis. Published ahead of the UN climate summit (COP31) in Türkiye, the report exposes how the world's super-rich are driving climate breakdown through their…
11
Git for the US Code
Lawyers should be able to read a statute as it stood on any date and see which law wrote each phrase. A history of nine titles of the US Code, built by replaying every amendment, as the example.
12
Roblox downloaded 145GB models from us (including adult content) without asking
On 15 and 16 October 2026, a crawler that said it belonged to Roblox walked through almost every project on Open3DLab, SFMLab and SmutBase, and proceeded to download complete copies of 1,027 files from 712 projects. 145.5 GB of our creators' work, downloaded for what we assume are AI training purposes.
13
DOJ says presidents should be able to sell secrets on eBay
Plus: Recent deaths intensify need to make private prisons subject to FOIA
14
Brown student maps the hidden global labor powering AI
Cunyan Ma’s interactive tool exposes the power structure that extracts low-wage labor from data workers in the Global South to make everyday AI algorithms function.
15
Investor-owned utilities charge 23% more for electricity than public providers
Average home electricity price from 2020 to 2025: investor-owned utilities +34%, public utilities +19%, co-ops +19%, against +24% inflation. Investor-owned prices rose faster in 38 of 48 states. EIA annual data by state and utility since 2015.
16
Hacker leaks 281 GB of data from Germany's far-right AfD party
Germany's far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party has confirmed that it has suffered a security breach, after a hacker published what appear to be hundreds of thousands of the controversial political party's internal emails.
17
The same AI request emits 8.5 times more CO2 in Texas than in Sweden
Swedish AI provider Berget AI releases an open-source method for calculating the carbon emissions of every individual AI request, developed with researchers from SEI, WattTime and Klimatkollen — and customers can now follow their emissions per request in the console.
18
Canadians are running out of time to oppose Bill C-22
Bill C-22, Canada’s Lawful Access Act, passed the House and is before the Senate. It threatens encryption and expands surveillance. Learn more + sign the petition.
19
Every AI model has the same "controversial" take on humans
We asked 14 AI models for their most controversial opinion of humans, three times each. 35 of 41 answers were the same one: we care more about belonging than about the truth.
20
Quad9 to exit France
A public and free DNS service for a better security and privacy
21
The 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement is no longer viable
UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2026 warns that exceeding 1.5°C is inevitable and calls for urgent emissions cuts to limit warming and reverse the trend.
22
Academics have a duty to defend open knowledge systems like Wikipedia
Wikipedia faces existential challenges from generative AI companies. Do researchers and teachers in higher education have an ethical duty to defend it?
23
Verisign .com Domain Name Registry Consumer Class Action
WHAT'S THE ISSUE?
24
How Quickly Can the DoD Rebuild and Recast the Munitions Industrial Base?
The U.S. munitions industrial base should be rebuilt and recast for modern wars of precision and attrition. What is a realistic timeline for this goal? By analyzing DOD budget documents and industry announcements, this analysis provides a clearer picture of the planned future.
25
eBay Restricts Listings of Radio Equipment, but Exempts Ham-Band-Only Gear
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
26
Desire to Move Permanently to U.S. at New Low
In 2025, fewer people worldwide are imagining their futures elsewhere. The U.S., long the world's most desired destination, is attracting less interest than at any point in nearly two decades.
27
28
AdFection: Targeted ads turned into a pipeline for zero-click mercenary spyware
This is the first-ever public confirmation of zero-click mercenary spyware delivered via targeted ads. We call the technique AdFection, and show how it was used to infect devices at Al Jazeera with Candiru’s spyware. We also uncover Discover-Tech, and show how the company helps mercenary surveillance vendors track and…
29
Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years
Our survey finds significant, double-digit declines in Americans’ participation in key social activities from 1995 to 2026.
30
Grace Hopper Celebration Cancelled
It is with deep regret that we are announcing the cancellation of this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration in Anaheim, CA.