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How death rates from Covid-19 differ between vaccinated and unvaccinated
To understand how the pandemic is evolving, it’s crucial to know how death rates from COVID-19 are affected by vaccination status.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 421 posts.
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US Should Create Strategy by End of '22 to Reduce Increasing Ocean Plastic Waste
Reckoning with the U.S Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste concludes plastic waste in the U.S. is ubiquitous and increasing. Worldwide, at least 8.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans each year — the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute — and in 2016…
333
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…
334
A Storage Crisis
The best new phones come with the ability to shoot 108 megapixel photos, record 4K video with stereo sound, and pack the results into a terabyte of onboard storage. But what do you do when that sto…
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Los Angeles is gearing up to ban wood-frame construction
Over the summer, the Los Angeles City Council Public Safety Committee approved a proposal to expand Fire District 1, an anachronistic planning overlay that would effectively ban wood-frame construction in much of the city. Superficially premised as a measure to improve fire safety, the motion has been heavily promoted…
336
Introducing Age Verification
Roblox is a global platform where millions of people gather together every day to imagine, create, and share experiences with each other in immersive, user-generated 3D worlds.
337
Strong Towns Has Filed a Lawsuit Against the Minnesota Board of Engineering
The Minnesota board that regulates engineering licenses is abusing their power in order to stifle the free speech of Charles Marohn and retaliate against the Strong Towns movement for their advocacy on transportation, infrastructure, and engineering reform. Strong Towns has filed suit in federal cou
338
Tax Evasion at the Top of the Income Distribution: Theory and Evidence
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
339
Legendary F1 team boss Sir Frank Williams dies, aged 79
Sir Frank Williams – the longest-serving Team Principal Formula 1 has ever seen – has died at the age of 79.
340
Status, Wealth, & Power: Network Effects Demand a New Social Contract
We are the ones creating these massive network effect businesses. So it's up to us to write new social contracts for the people who use them.
341
Antioxidants Vitamin C and Vitamin E associated with lower risk of Parkinson’s
MINNEAPOLIS - People who consume high levels of vitamin C and E in their diet may have a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease than people who get only small amounts of these nutrients, according to a new study published in the January 6, 2021, online issue of Neurology ® , the medical journal of the American Academy of…
342
We found a phone with pre-installed malware via the Lifeline Assistance program
We discovered yet another phone model with pre-installed malware provided from the Lifeline Assistance program via Assurance Wireless by Virgin Mobile.
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The censorship of WallStreetBets needs to be a watershed moment for everyone
This event is when censorship overstepped a very serious mark.
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Social media is broken – a new report offers ways to fix it
A new report offers solutions to the problems that hound social media, from the spread of misinformation to the lack of competition.
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Strange domain names that developers bought
Not every domain is serious business. Here's a few of the fun ones that we at Stack Overflow owned, as well as those owned by our community.
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New Texas Abortion Law Likely to Unleash a Torrent of Lawsuits Against Education
In addition to the drastic restrictions it places on a woman’s reproductive and medical care rights, the new Texas abortion law, SB8, will have devastating effects on online speech. The law creates a cadre of bounty hunters who can use the courts to punish and silence anyone whose online advocacy,...
349
Library Holdings from Tokyo Univ. Now Available Through the Internet Archive
Written by Professor Tom Gally, University of Tokyo, and Katie Barrett, Internet Archive & JET Program AlumTranslations by Tomoki Sakakibara, University of Tokyo (日本語はページ下部にあります。 Scroll down for Japanese version.) As our global society grows ever more connected, it can be easy to assume that all of human history is…
350
Who Will Control the Software That Powers the Internet?
Control over important internet services has shifted from open source to proprietary services operated by big tech. As a result, people got access to technology, but that shift also created serious problems.
351
Foraging humans, mammals and birds who live in the same place behave similarly
Foraging humans find food, reproduce, share parenting, and even organise their social groups in similar ways as surrounding mammal and bird species, depending on where they live in the world, new research has found.
352
DPA blocks facial recognition system in Italy and MP proposes moratorium
Italian DPA argues the SARI Real Time facial recognition system lacks a legal basis and, as designed, it would implement a form of mass surveillance. On 14 April, a member of the Italian Parliament, Filippo Sensi, proposed a moratorium on the use of video surveillance tools that use Facial Recognition.
353
Captcha Patent Is an All-American Nightmare
A newly formed patent troll is looking for big money from small business websites, just for using free, off-the-shelf login verification tools. Defenders of the American Dream, LLC (DAD ), is sending out its demand letters to websites that use Google’s reCAPTCHA system, accusing them of infringing...
354
Apple’s renewable energy projects are helping to create 1.2GW of clean power
Apple’s newly completed renewable projects are bringing clean energy to local communities while reducing carbon emissions.
355
Filecoin Foundation Grants 50k FIL to the Internet Archive
Amidst the speculative boom for NFTs and crypto-currencies, one decentralized technology foundation is taking the long view by investing in deep history and the far future. Today, the Filecoin Foundation announced a 50,000 FIL grant to the Internet Archive - the largest single donation in the digital library’s 25-year…
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Internet uptake has accelerated during the pandemic
ITU’s Measuring digital development: Facts and figures 2021 offers a snapshot of the most important ICT indicators, including estimates for the current year.
357
Shooting an Elephant (1936)
"[…] it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East."
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Quad9 Files Official Objection Opposing Sony Music’s German Court Ruling
A public and free DNS service for a better security and privacy
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Pegasus vs. Predator
Two Egyptians—exiled politician Ayman Nour and the host of a popular news program (who wishes to remain anonymous)—were hacked with Predator spyware, built and sold by the previously little-known mercenary spyware developer Cytrox. The phone of Ayman Nour was simultaneously infected with both Cytrox’s Predator and NSO…