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How to identify an immoral maze
Previously in sequence: Moloch Hasn’t Won, Perfect Competition, Imperfect Competition, Does Big Business Hate Your Family?, What is Life in an Immoral Maze?, Stripping Away the Protections, What is…
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The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 13,066 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
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What to do if you’re stopped by the police
When I was 5, I saw the Karate Kid. I saw that bad guys could beat me up, and I had no recourse if I didn't know karate. I promptly signed up for martial arts classes.
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I went to see a movie, and instead I saw the future
A few days ago my wife and I went to see Uncut Gems at a Regal theater in Chicago. We booked our ticket online, reserved our seats, showed up 15 minutes ahead of time, and settled in. After the coi…
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Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay
We should look at individuals—not national averages—as the unit of analysis, and ask: Are wages adequate for full-time workers?
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Why I Quit Using Google
So I was recently asked why I prefer to use free and open source software over more conventional and popular proprietary software and services. A few years ago I was an avid Google user. I was deep…
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US government-funded phones come pre-installed with unremovable malware
A US-funded government assistance program is selling budget-friendly mobile phones that come pre-installed with unremovable malicious apps.
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Jeffrey Epstein and MIT: FAQs
Today, January 10, 2020, the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation released the fact-finding report it commissioned to help the Institute understand the origins, nature, and extent of Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to MIT and learn from them. The questions and answers below provide context.
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Facebook's PR feels broken
Facebook’s communications operation has begun to feel like its completely broken down over the past few days.
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The Unstoppable Rise of Sci-Hub (2019)
How do early career researchers (ECRs) use Sci-Hub and why? In this post David Nicholas assesses early career researcher attitudes towards the journal pirating site, finding a strong preference for Sci-Hub amongst French ECRs. He raises the question, will Sci-Hub prove the ultimate disruptor and bring down the…
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A Big Little Idea Called Legibility (2010)
James C. Scott's fascinating and seminal book, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Imp rove the Human Condition Have Failed , examines how, across…
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The President and the Bomb, Part IV
Why the problem of "the President and the bomb" isn't about the "crazy President," but something far more pernicious and possible.
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US emissions fell 2.1% in 2019
After a sharp uptick in 2018, we estimate that US greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.1% last year based on preliminary energy and economic data. This decline was due almost entirely to a drop in coal consumption.
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A Sick Giant
Available today
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Contractors use shell games to hide owners, cheat taxpayers
We dig into the law, the Constitution, and public policy to give decision-makers in government the data and policy solutions they need enact reforms that ensure our government answers to the people.
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I opened a link some random person sent me and I got raided (2015)
Personal Blog of Christian Haschek
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How Bees Argue
The book Honeybee Democracy, published in 2010, has been sitting on my shelf for many years.
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Google files opening Supreme Court brief in Oracle v. Google copyright lawsuit
We’re asking the Supreme Court to reaffirm the importance of the software interoperability that has allowed developers to write millions of applications for billions of …
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Better protecting kids’ privacy on YouTube
See how we're working to protect kids' privacy on YouTube. Discover our latest updates and initiatives for a safer platform.
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Bruce Perens: Invasion of the Ethical Licenses (2019)
About 23 years ago, I created the Debian Free Software Guidelines to help the Debian developers decide what software was permissible to include in Debian, which aspired to be 100% Free Software, and what should be consigned to a "non-free" repository upon which Debian would never depend. Nine months later, those…
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The Most Abandoned Books on GoodReads (2019)
Which books on GoodReads are most difficult to finish? Estimating proportions in December 2019 gives an entirely different result than absolute counts.
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Unremarkables
There has never been a better time to be remarkable, nor a worse time to be unremarkable.
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The Astonishing Prescience of Nam June Paik
I hadn’t heard of Nam June Paik until I went to his exhibition at Tate Modern a few weeks ago.
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Getting a 787 back in the air after a diversion
On Wednesday, 12 October at 38,000 feet over the North Pacific Ocean, American Airlines flight 288 developed an issue with its number 2 engine, the General Electric GEnx-1B engine on the right hand side of the aircraft. The crew decided the best course of action was to divert the aircraft, but over the Pacific…
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Worst Ed-Tech Debacles of the Decade
For the past ten years, I have written a lengthy year-end series, documenting some of the dominant narratives and trends in education technology. I think it is worthwhile, as the decade draws to a ...
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