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Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 347 posts.
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The clever reason scammers can’t spell (2019)
Anybody who doesn’t fall off their chair laughing is exactly who they want to talk to – Cormac Herley, Microsoft computer scientist.
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JetBrains suspends R&D activities in Russia and sales in Russia and Belarus
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.
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Why We’re Suing NSO
Some of the most courageous journalists in the world write for El Faro, a Salvadoran news organization whose fearless, independent reporting about corruption, violence, and human rights abuses in Central America has earned it the gratitude of readers all over the world—and the enmity of criminal gangs and…
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Briar has been removed from Google Play
Status update Update (February 28, 13:20 UTC): Briar is available on Google Play again. Briar was briefly removed from Google Play because we didn’t provide Google’s review team with a username and password for testing the app. We provided Google with a username and password for testing and the app is now available…
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The future of innovation has patent-free standards
Supposedly “open“ standards – including those ratified by ISO, CEN and ETSI – can’t be implemented without going cap-in-hand to the world’s largest companies to buy a license.
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We asked 100 humans to draw the DALL·E prompts
Where do human artists fit in a world of rich, creative AI? We asked 100 Surgers to draw the DALL-E prompts.
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Missing link between Alzheimer’s and vascular disease found?
A gene called FMNL2 may explain why people with hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, or obesity have a greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
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How Does This End?
Russia’s war in Ukraine has an infinite number of scenarios, but scores of war games point to two likely paths.
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Who owns Parliament?
This week, MPs have returned to Parliament from their summer recess. As they walk through its corridors, drink in its subsidised bars, and plot in its tea-rooms, I wonder how many MPs stop to ask: …
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Long-Term Building in Japan
It is striking that this part of Japan houses two sets of structures, both of nearly equal age, and both made of largely ephemeral materials that have lasted over 14 centuries through totally different mechanisms and religions.
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Right to Repair Fight
Manufacturers of vehicles, electronics, appliances, and more are making it tough for independent shops and DIYers to make repairs. Shouldn’t you be able to get stuff you own fixed where and how you want?
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IETF Draft: Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards
Despite being designed and operated as a decentralized network-of-networks, the Internet is continuously subjected to forces that encourage centralization. This document offers a definition of centralization, explains why it is undesirable, identifies different types of it, catalogues limitations of common approaches…
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Nokia and Airbus elected as judges at the UPC, an unheard corruption of Justice
Brussels, 16th November 2022 — Nokia and Airbus got their patent lawyers elected as part-time technical judges at the forthcoming Unified Patent Court (UPC). Europe is witnessing corporate capture of its Justice system. Being ‘judges’ in the morning and ‘ patent lawyers’ in the afternoon. The Unified Patent Court is…
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The tech industry controls CS conference funding. What are the dangers?
Research about the influence of computing technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), on society relies heavily upon the financial support of the very companies that produce those technologies. Corporations like Google, Microsoft, and IBM spend millions of dollars each year to sponsor labs, professorships, PhD…
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Meta’s Adversarial Threat Report, Third Quarter 2022
We’re sharing details about three deceptive networks we took down during the last quarter.
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Unpaid social media moderators perform labor worth at least $3.4M/year on Reddit
The social networking platform Reddit relies on volunteer moderators to prevent the site from being overrun by problematic content—including hate speech—and ensure that it remains appealing for users. Though uncompensated, this labor is highly valuable to the company: According to a pair of new studies led by…
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Astronomers Witness a Dying Star Reach Its Explosive End
Haleakalā and Maunakea, Hawai ʻ i – For the very first time, astronomers have imaged in real time the dramatic end to a red supergiant’s life, watching the massive star’s rapid self-destruction and final death throes before it collapsed into a Type II supernova.
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How to Paint a Crosswalk
A step-by-step guide to paint a crosswalk and keep your community safe.
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The Truth Matters and Secular Humanists Should Defend It
There is nothing more essential to secular humanism than the truth. Secular humanists are the people who looked at thousands of years of received authority ...
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A better way to divide the pie
In his new book, Prof. Barry Nalebuff proposes a fairer, more principled way to negotiate: splitting the additional value created by reaching an agreement. In this excerpt, he explains the concept through a visit to one of New Haven’s iconic pizza spots.
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Ultra High Resolution Photo of Night Watch (2022)
Op 8 juli 2019 start het Rijksmuseum Operatie Nachtwacht, het grootste en meest veelzijdige onderzoeks- en restauratieproject van Rembrandts meesterwerk in de geschiedenis. Operatie Nachtwacht heeft tot doel het schilderij optimaal te behouden voor de toekomst.
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Marriage and luxury beliefs at the United Nations
There is probably no greater gift that two parents can give to their children than to provide them with a safe, stable and nurturing environment until they feel confident and independent enough to leave the nest. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed the support of safe, stable and nurturing…
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Statement on 4 Years of GDPR
When the GDPR became applicable on 25 May 2018, it was perceived as a watershed moment. The past 4 years have shown that a law alone does not change business models.