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Civilizational Collapse, Part 4
This is part 4 of an intermittent yet always enjoyable series: • Part 1: the rise of the ancient Puebloan civilization in the American Southwest from 10,000 BC to 750 AD. • Part 2: the rise and col…
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 742 posts.
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Recognizing the signs of disruption in our urban habitat
Commuter rail stations in the San Francisco Bay Area should be some of the most valuable land in the region (and by extension, the world). So why are there so many parking lots and one-story buildings right next to them?
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The Poorest 20% of Americans Are Richer on Average Than Most Nations
A groundbreaking study from Just Facts has found that the poorest 20% of Americas consume more goods and services than the averages for most of the world�s richest nations.
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Only 2% of federal criminal defendants went to trial in 2018, and most who did were found guilty
Trials are rare in the federal criminal justice system: Just 2% of criminal defendants went to trial in fiscal 2018. Acquittals are even rarer.
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What Makes a Good Conversation?
This blog post is about the NAACL 2019 paper What makes a good conversation? How controllable attributes affect human judgments by Abigail See, Stephen Rolle...
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Deconstructing Google’s excuses on tracking protection
By Jonathan Mayer and Arvind Narayanan. Blocking cookies is bad for privacy. That’s the new disingenuous argument from Google, trying to justify why Chrome is so far behind Safari and Firefox in offering privacy protections. As researchers who have spent over a decade studying web tracking and online advertising, we…
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Starbucks, monetary superpower
I recently spent some time on Twitter discussing the monetary wonders of Starbucks. In this post I'll bring a bunch of tweets together i...
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Renewable Energy
Renewable energy sources are growing quickly and will play a vital role in tackling climate change.
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Cryptic, allusive messages from Hong Kong's wealthiest tycoon
August 18, 2019 @ 12:31 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Decipherment , Language and history , Language and literature , Language and politics
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My Apology Regarding Jeffrey Epstein
I’m sure that most, if not all of you, have seen recent news stories about Jeffrey Epstein, and I owe it to you to address my prior affiliation with him.I met …
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On me, and the Media Lab
(Please be sure to read the addendum at the end of this post.) A week ago last Friday, I spoke to Joi Ito about the release of documents that accuse Media Lab co-founder Marvin Minsky of involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes.* Joi told me that evening that the Media Lab’s ties to Epstein went… Read More »On…
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An oral history of the AIM away message
Speed up product development from ideation to launch. Align teams, break tool silos and ship what customers need in one AI-powered visual platform.
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Mozilla takes action to protect users in Kazakhstan
Today, Mozilla and Google took action to protect the online security and privacy of individuals in Kazakhstan. Together the companies deployed technical so
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Court Rules That “Patent Troll” Is Opinion, Not Defamation
Free speech in the patent world saw a big win on Friday, when the New Hampshire Supreme Court held that calling someone a “patent troll” doesn’t constitute defamation. The court’s opinion [PDF] is good news for critics of abusive patent litigation, and anyone who values robust public debate around...
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GPT-2: 6-Month Follow-Up
We’re releasing the 774 million parameter GPT-2 language model after the release of our small 124M model in February, staged release of our medium 355M model in May, and subsequent research with partners and the AI community into the model’s potential for misuse and societal benefit. We’re also releasing an…
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Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from China
We removed seven Pages, three Groups and five Facebook accounts as part of a small network that originated in China and focused on Hong Kong.
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I Miss Microsoft Encarta
Microsoft Encarta came out in 1993 and was one of the first CD-ROMs I had. It ...
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Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation
Business Roundtable today announced the release of a new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation signed by 181 CEOs who commit to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders.
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The world’s most-surveilled cities
We've gathered data on CCTV cameras in use in 120 major cities across the globe to determine which cities have the most surveillance cameras per person.
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Dating: A Research Journal, Part 1 (2016)
My journey to finding love using science and data. Part 1 – how to own online dating.
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Nigerian Teens Are Making Sci-Fi Shorts with Slick Visual Effects
For the past year, a group of teens in Nigeria called the Critics Company have been uploading short sci-fi films to their YouTube channel. Using a smartphone wi
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Interslavic Language
Introduction to Interslavic — Vvod v medžuslovjansky jeazy — Ввод в меджусловјански језык