Topics /
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 4,917 posts.
Privacy Not Included was launched in 2017 to help you understand the privacy risks of tech products that connect to the internet. We are continuing that work in the form of Product Reviews at our magazine Nothing Personal, where our privacy experts do hours of hands-on testing and research on the most popular consumer…
EFF is pleased to announce that our client, Chris Roberts, is now in the possession of all of his digital devices that had been held by the FBI since April 2015. Earlier this year, Mr. Roberts was detained for tweeting about airplane network security. When he landed in Syracuse, the FBI escorted...
You sit down at an upscale restaurant and scan the menu, banter with the waiter, and make your selection. You feel sure you’ve chosen what you want, based on your appetite, your budget, or your culinary preferences. But have you really? Behind the scenes, some restaurants have cleverly designed their menus to steer…
FOSDEM 2022 will take place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 February 2022. It will be an online event.
Math professor David Edwards sent me this short essay on mathematical education. Printed with his permission. The Math Myth Themath myth is the myth that the future of the American economy is dependent upon the masses having higher mathematics skills. This myth goes back to at least Sputnik, when the Russians were…
Based on recent projections, the US federal debt is expected to grow to historic highs over the next decade. This column uses the FRB-US model to simulate fiscal scenarios for the US. Across all fiscal consolidations considered, the debt/GDP ratio and interest bill increase at least until 2026-2027. Growth is not a…
In this article Andrew Sayer revives some concepts - ‘unearned income’, ‘rentiers’, ‘functionless investors’, and ‘improperty’ - to explain why the very rich are unjust and dysfunctional. We need to challenge the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators, he argues. In light of the news that the…
The business of state civil courts has changed over the past three decades. In 1990, a typical civil court docket featured cases with two opposing sides, each with an attorney, most frequently regarding commercial matters and disputes over contracts, injuries, and other harms.
Although Wall Street would be ferociously opposed to policies that limit the unfettered flow of capital around the world, the right polices could sharply reduce the economic disruption wreaked on workers, producers, farmers, and the middle class.
Anti-Tutsi articles and graphic cartoons began appearing in the Kangura newspaper from around 1990. In June 1993 a new radio station called Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLMC) began broadcasting in Rwanda…
The combined wealth of the richest 1 percent will overtake that of the other 99 percent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
Americans' support for legalizing marijuana continues to set new records, with 66% of U.S. adults now in favor of making the drug legal.
Anybody who doesn’t fall off their chair laughing is exactly who they want to talk to – Cormac Herley, Microsoft computer scientist.
Schools that seek to help students who are underrepresented in advanced programs should treat them as gifted young scholars, an approach that can result in many of them actually performing at a gifted level within a few years, according to a U.S. Dept. of Education study of a North Carolina program.
Online payment processing for internet businesses. Stripe is a suite of payment APIs that powers commerce for businesses of all sizes.
At Meta, research permeates everything we do. We believe the most interesting research questions are derived from real world problems.
EFF, ACLU, and Access Now released a statement in support of Apple and its stance on encryption last week. We called on the President to reject any attempt to force backdoors like the one the FBI was seeking to Apple’s operating system. We asked our communities to help by tweeting at the President...
(((It's very clear that the postal system is not a dead medium. However, the physical and economic structure of the posts has undergone profound, elaborate changes over the centuries. Early postal systems often doubled as espionage networks, and were often proverbially corrupt.
We have already made our position very clear in regard to the invasion of Ukraine. We condemn the attacks of the Russian government, and we stand with the Ukrainian people, including our own colleagues and their families.
Read about the new ebooks Standard Ebooks is releasing for Public Domain Day 2025!
This policy is illogical and will harm Americans, their employees, employers, and family members. It will drive talented people to other countries and make America a less competitive place for business.
Los Angeles lost a hundred thousand affordable homes in a decade. Don’t look to bulldozers to explain how.
A short commentary on Mozilla's policy changes and how they affect the user community.
Public Health professor discusses how ultra-processed foods are a direct legacy of the tobacco industry, and are responsible for a dramatic rise in obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases across the country.
