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How the Blog Broke the Web (2017)
I first got online in 1993, back when the Web had a capital letter — three, in fact — and long before irony stretched its legs and unbuttoned its flan
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 295 posts.
122
False memories, or why we’re so sure of things we’re wrong about
Felipe De Brigard is an assistant professor of philosophy at Duke, where he runs the Imagination and Modal Cognition Lab. That may not sound like philosophy in the traditional sense; De Brigard’s work is at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience, and is supported right now by a $500,000 grant from the Office…
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Homeland Security’s New Database to Include Faces, DNA, and Relationships
So why do we know so little about it?The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly building what will likely become the largest database of biometric and biographic data on citizens and foreigners in the United States. The agency’s new Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART)...
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Making a racist AI without really trying (2017)
A cautionary tutorial. Let's make a sentiment classifier!¶Sentiment analysis is a very frequently-implemented task in NLP, and it's no surprise. Recognizing whether people are expressing positi
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Why we’re changing Flickr free accounts
Today, we’re announcing updates to our Free and Pro accounts that mark a new step forward for Flickr. To be candid, we’re driving toward the future of Flickr with one eye on the rearview mirror; we…
128
YouTube (Un)Blocks Blender Videos
The Free and Open Source 3D Creation Software — blender.org
129
Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress with Mugshots
Amazon’s face surveillance technology is the target of growing opposition nationwide, and today, there are 28 more causes for concern. In a test the ACLU recently conducted of the facial recognition tool, called “Rekognition,” the software incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress, identifying them as other people…
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Archive.org and California to start a data sharing and preservation project
Research and cultural heritage institutions are facing increasing costs to provide long-term public access to historically valuable collections of scientific data, born-digital records, and other digital artifacts. With many institutions moving data to cloud services, data sharing and access costs have become more…
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Improvisational theater can reduce anxiety in teens who struggle socially
ANN ARBOR—Improvisational theater training can reduce fearfulness and anxiety among teens struggling with social interactions, a new University of Michigan study suggests. School-based improv theater—performing without a script or preparation—may be effective for social phobias and anxiety disord
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The Economics of a Commune in the Ozarks
East Wind Nut Butters manufactures premium bulk and wholesale nut & seed butters, including Organic Valencia Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Cashew Butter, and Organic Tahini for foodservice and private-label partners.
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Amazon Selects New York City and Northern Virginia for New Headquarters
Amazon to invest $5 billion and create more than 50,000 jobs across the two new headquarters, and announces Nashville as new Operations Center of Excellence with more than 5,000 jobs.
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Air India Express 737 Hits ILS, Damages Wall on Departure, Flies for 4 Hours
Air India Express flight IX611 struck an ILS lighting tower and damaged a nearby brick wall at the departure end of RWY 27 in Trichy on departure.
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12-year study will look at effects of universal basic income
$25 million will be given to participants, with no strings attached.
137
Mozilla Fights for Net Neutrality This May (and Always)
Mozilla is continuing to fight for net neutrality — in the courts, alongside Americans, on Twitter and, today, by joining the Red Alert protest. The Red
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EFF Sues to Invalidate FOSTA, an Unconstitutional Internet Censorship Law
We are asking a court to declare the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (“FOSTA”) unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced. The law was written so poorly that it actually criminalizes a substantial amount of protected speech and, according to experts,...
139
Text Embedding Models Contain Bias
As Machine Learning practitioners, when faced with a task, we usually select or train a model primarily based on how well it performs on that task. For example, say we're building a system to classify whether a movie review is positive or negative. We take 5 different models and see how well each performs this task:
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The Lie Behind the Lie Detector
5th Edition of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector Released
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Hacker News Highlights: April and May 2018
Here are some of our favorite Hacker News comments from April and May. If you see something cool like this, email us at hn@ycombinator.com [mailto:hn@ycombinator.com] so we can add it to the next list. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HN users across countries discuss…
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Debt Collection Companies Have Hijacked the Justice System
Lauren Smith (pseudonym) a mother of three in Indiana, had to file for bankruptcy because she couldn’t afford to repay her bills for treatment for thyroid cancer. And because she was unable to work, she had to stay with her parents in Florida while she recovered. She didn’t know that during that time, at the request…
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Study finds increased possibility of information leaking around Fed meetings
Booth study finds increased possibility of information leaking around Fed meetings
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Court has confirmed coordinated raids of Zwiebelfreunde in Germany were illegal
Update July 10th: Last week Monday, prosecution stated that they will keep our things for further analysis, even after explicitly confirming to journalists that they are aware that our only connection to Riseup is the collection of donations. This includes items belonging to our partners, and other third parties like…
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The Absolute Denial of Shit
Today emoji are used by 92% of the world’s online population. The diminutive images have inspired a holiday and a $50 million animated movie. You can even make a living translating them. The Emojicon convention draws attendees from around the world. Topics of discussion at the 2018 gathering in Brooklyn include: “How…
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Zen Magnets: 6 Years of Battle End in Victory
“We will not settle for any sort of stop-sale of magnets that are perfectly safe when not misused… We vow to continue this [legal] battle until our very last drop of cash-flow blood”, promised in August 2014 , forecasting 95% chance of a glorious honorable death of insolvency on the legal battlefield.
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U.S. Freelance Workforce, Now 56.7M People, Grew 3.7M Since 2014
View the latest news, announcements, media coverage, and media resources from Upwork.
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When the business model is the privacy violation
Sometimes, when we worry about data privacy, we’re worried that data might fall into the wrong hands or be misused for unintended purposes. If I’m considering participating in a medical study, I’d want to know if insurance companies will obtain the data and use it against me. In these scenarios, we should look for…