541
Using government guidelines to police content: state censorship?
YouTube's decision to demonetize podcaster Bret Weinstein raises serious questions, both about the First Amendment and regulatory capture
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 1,050 posts.
542
Media blackout after key witness against Assange admits lying
As we have pointed out since Media Lens began in 2001, a fundamental feature of corporate media is propaganda by omission . Over the past week, a stunning example has highlighted this core property once again.
543
When Orcs Were Real
The Ancient Struggle for Homo Sapiens to Rule the Earth
544
FCC reaffirms $3M fine for marketing unauthorized drone transmitters
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national association for amateur radio, connecting hams around the U.S. with news, information and resources.
545
The YouTube revolution in knowledge transfer (2019)
Growing up as an aspiring javelin thrower in Kenya, the young Julius Yego was unable to find a coach: in a country where runners command the most prestige, mentorship was practically nonexistent. Determined to succeed, he instead watched YouTube recordings of Norwegian Olympic javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen…
546
The short tale of an online scam
How I used Python to get back at an online scammer - and what I discovered in the process
547
The most precious resource is agency
I have edited and expanded this in a newer post, you should read that instead: School is Not Enough
548
Intuit sabotages the Child Tax Credit
When people call the US Supreme Court "corporate-friendly," it's often hard to know what that means in concrete terms. But here's an example of what it means when the highest court in the land is in the tank for big business.
549
Conspiracy: In Theory and Practice
Would you like to know a secret?
550
NATO Classified Cloud Platform Compromised
Hackers attempted to use the data in an extortion scheme, joking about altering the source code or sending it to Russian intelligence
551
MIT and Harvard agree to transfer edX to ed-tech firm 2U
MIT and Harvard University announced a major transition for edX, the online platform for university courses: edX’s assets are to be acquired by education technology company 2U, and reorganized as a public benefit company. 2U will transfer $800 million to a nonprofit organization, led by MIT and Harvard, to explore the…
552
We moderns are status-drunk
Twelve years ago I posted on how our era is a rare unique “dreamtime” of fast growth, wide cultural integration, and delusional beliefs.
553
The Lightness of Windows
The Windows 11 announcement was fun and interesting, but there is a reason that Windows is no longer the center of Microsoft’s business.
554
555
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace (1996)
by John Perry Barlow Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.We have no elected...
556
Windows 11 will create heaps of needless trash
The latest announcements for Windows 11 have revealed that the next version of the Windows operating system will have very stringent hardware requirements. Some of them are, in my opinion, quite reasonable. For example, they’re finally dropping support for 32 bit X86 and legacy BIOS boot. These make sense, because…
557
Privacy for Students: Surveillance Self-Defense
Schools are increasingly adopting surveillance technology to spy on students while they’re at school, at home, or even on their social media. The companies that make these surveillance products and services advertise them to schools as a way to keep students safe–but there’s no evidence so far that they actually...
558
559
Windows 11, Amazon, and Uncomfortable Questions
Android app development books
560
ISP announces 86% slowdown “in line with others”
Altice wins the race to the bottom.
561
No Space Left to Run: China's Transnational Repression of Uyghurs
In partnership with the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs gathered cases of China’s transnational repression of Uyghurs from public sources, including government documents, human rights reports, and reporting by credible news agencies to establish a detailed analysis of how the…
562
Reddit’s disrespectful design
An overview of Reddit's adversarial and seemingly counter-productive changes.
563
Chris Avellone about why he “didn’t fight any of this”
Since “updates” can usually get lost in the noise, the most recent updates are put first.
564
A man whose software ate the world
Marc Andreessen on building, COVID, and how the Internet is taking us back to previous forms of thinking
565
Why Did Congress Just Vote to Break Up Big Tech?
The Judiciary Committee voted 21-20 to split up Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. What happened was unbelievable.
566
Slamming political rivals may be the most effective way to go viral
Study of almost 3 million Facebook and Twitter posts from US media and politicians shows divisive posts dunking on opponents drives engagement on social media.
567
568
569
Teaching open-source software in North Korea
In 2016, I went to North Korea to teach a class of masters students how to contribute to open source software . Here’s an image from one of my lectures:
570
International coalition calls for action against surveillance-based advertising
Groups in Europe and U.S. ask for action to end practices that threaten citizens’ rights.